Goodbye Today, Hello Tomorrow
by Hashkorns
Summary: [DISCONTINUED]
1. Chapter 1: Scars

**Disclaimer: No, I do not own Inuyasha and I never will. If I did, I'll hunt down and kill every fucken Kikyo-hater there is in the whole goddamn world!**

Big Q: Tsk, tsk. You're being racist again.

Me: Racist?

Big Q: You see, like yourself a Kikyo-fan, you are a species because ….gjasdjoihdogjrljoijadlkhfjgtijaljpquoijlkjfoasjfqwhfoisduyojglsk, and not to mention…snfdslghsfgnslkhglkjglfdnghadfk vdkfnjglkdfuagojglakjgljdsfgakndg jlshghgalsdjgoigaksdlnjlkdsjldskajl gjagklhdsgjadfhfhikg;khljodfksfjkdsfd, do you understand now?

Me: O.O

Psyche: Made sense to me.

Me: O.O

Big Q: Dear, everything makes sense to you.

Me: O.O

Psyche: (poke poke) I think she's dead. (poke poke)

Me: O.O

**ATTENTION READERS: UP TO THE ABOUT CHAPTER NINE OR TEN THE REST OF THE CHAPTERS ARE POORLY WRITTEN AND THE PLOT IS PRACTICALLY INEXISTENT. FEEL FREE TO SKIP A FEW CHAPTERS AND SEND A FEW FLAMES. I'LL EDIT THE CRAP OUT WHEN I GET THE CHANCE (OR WHEN I FEEL LIKE IT). THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!**

_Summary:_

_Basically, Miroku died in the incident of 9/11 because he was on the plane with the terrorists. Sango has been depressed ever since and has even tried to commit suicide a couple of times. Nothing Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, other friends, and even family members could say to heal her heart. Until…someone moves in next door in her apartment building. Someone who's taking over the room where Miroku used to live…………

* * *

_

**Chapter 1: Scars**

The world is a painful place, it gives and takes, and with every change, it just hearts you more and more. You have to learn to move on no matter how hard it is. Looking back with only triple the amount of pain that you already are burdened with. Sometimes you may think that you may never be healed again, but eventually, even if it takes a thousand years, someone will come to you, and set you free. Until that day, live your best and look at things in a happier way. Even if it's forced happiness, true happiness is on its way….

It was twelve at noon already, but Sango was still sitting on her bed like she would do everyday. Just sitting there with her chin on her knees and her hands wrapped around her legs, her eyes drowning deeper and deeper into despair. Kirara had gotten used to her mistress's behavior ever since that day almost four years ago. Not even her purring and rubbing would make Sango feel better. All she got was a few soft pats on the head which eventually turned to silence and ignorance. Nothing seemed to be getting through to her anymore. He friends and family would call occasionally to see if she was feeling better, but nothing's ever changed.

The curtains were drawn, the room was dark and Sango was even in darker. Occasionally her brown eyes would turn to look at the picture on her lamp stand. They had taken that picture a month before _he_ died. Tears started to fill her eyes, but those were just the usual tears. The ones that meant nothing. In the picture, Miroku had his hand around Sango's waist and the other one was on her shoulder, and they had the ocean to their back. They all looked so happy. But those days were over. Miroku is never going to come back and things would never be the same. That was what Sango kept on telling herself anyway.

Sango didn't want to live any longer since the love of her life disappeared. All her attempts of suicide had been thwarted by her friends.

* * *

"_How's Songo feeling? Any better?" Inuyasha said as he entered Sango's room._

"_Can't say she's gotten any better." Kagome said softly. In her hands was the picture that they had all taken when they graduated college._

"_Keh…I say she gets a new man." Inuysasha said, crossing his arms. But Kagome could tell that he was still hurt by the loss of his best friend._

_In the length of silence, Shippo, who had been silent until then spoke up. "Do you hear that? I think the tub's running."_

_Inuyasha and Kagome exchanged looked of shock. "Inuyasha, you don't think…?"_

"_One way to find out." Inuyasha growled as he strode towards the bathroom door and tried the door. "It's locked." He pounded. "Open up, Sango!"_

_No response, just the sound of the tub running._

"_That's it!" Inuyasha stepped back and kicked the door open._

"_Sango!" Kagome cried as she heaved her best friend out of the over-filling tub._

"_Pull yourself together, Sango!" Shippo cried, running in followed by Kirara._

"_Let me go! Just let me be, why can't I just die! That way I'll be able to see him again." Sango said as she struggled to get out of Kagome's grasp._

_Inuyasha went over and seized Sango roughly by the front of her shirt and lifted her until they were face to face. "Listen up, Sango! I'm fucken tired off all your goddamn complaining and moaning! Miroku's never gonna come back no matter how much we all fucken want him to!" _

_Even as he shouted, tears were coming out of Inuyasha's eyes. "So just fucken get yourself together. Even though Miroku's dead, he wouldn't want to fucken see us in hell. You know why! He and all those other fucken people in that plane all fucken agreed to blow themselves up with those bastards to save US!" Inuyasha stifled a sob before continuing. "So don't ever fucken try to do this ever again, dammit!"_

_Sango cried and wrapped her arms around Inuyasha to support herself. _

_Kagome wiped tears away from her eyes and hugged both Inuyasha and Sango. Together, the four remaing best friends found comfort holding each other.

* * *

_

She had tried several other attempts after that, but they always stopped her. She just sat there, not thinking, not crying, not living…

The phone rang.

Sango sat there.

The phone rang.

Kirara meowed.

Sango looked at the phone.

The phone rang.

Sango reached over silently and picked up the phone. Her voice was dull and emotionless. It was as if she went into a trance the minute she heard Miroku's voice on the phone that day.

"_Sango…are you awake?"_

"_Yes, now this better be good, Miroku. It's still early in the morning.."_

"_I'm not going to be coming back ever."_

"_What."_

"_I'm not going to live longer."_

"_What….I-I don't understand."_

"_I love you, Sango. And I always will, remember that."_

_Click._

"Hello."

"Sango, are you up yet?"

"Yes.."

Kikyo sighed over the other end of the phone. "Okay, just checking. After your last attempt I wanted to check every week."

"Oh…..you heard."

Another sigh. "Yes, my little sister told me. Kagome's really worried about you."

"Oh…"

"Well, the other reason I called is to let you know that you won't have to come to work today."

"Why?"

"Well, I figured you needed a vacation. Just make sure to come Wednesday, okay?"

"…"

"Sango?"

"Yes…Wednesday..I'll be there."

"Good…..Sango, another thing."

"Yes."

"I want to see you smile when you get back."

Sango hung up on Kikyo and resumed sitting there.

* * *

On the other side of the phone, Kikyo hung up and sighed. She was really worried, if Sango didn't get better and the customers keep on complained about bad service then…..Kikyo rubbed her temples and when a customer tapped the counter. "Hello? Are you listening? I said I wanted another cup of coffee." 

Kikyo looked up and snarled. "Oh, shove it." Then she gave him a look that would have decapitated a dandelion.

* * *

Sango sat there for another ten minutes before someone knocked on her door. 

"Sango, are ye up yet? It is I, Kaede."

Sango sat there for a few more moments until Kaede knocked again. After dressing herself, she opened the front door. If the landlady was knocking on her door, then it was worth it. Nothing else was worth it. Nothing else.

"Ah, you're up. I was beginning to think that you're still asleep." Kaede said even though everyone knows that nobody would still be sleeping when it's twelve-thirty in the afternoon.

"Yes…Can I help you?"

Kaede's elderly face broke into a smile. "Well, I don't know. You could help him." She turned towards the door across from Sango's. The door was open and there was stacks of cardboard outside and inside.

For a second, Sango's face was filled with surprise and she walked across the hall. "Miroku? Is it you, Miroku?"

Kaede sighed and followed Sango.

When Sango entered the room, she saw someone's digging into a box. That someone turned around. "What's up." It wasn't Miroku. It was someone else. He had crazy silver-blue hair with long bangs that covered one eye. A number of piercings on both ears. He was a little shorter than Miroku, but still taller than Sango. The stranger was lanky and slender. He wore a white t-shirt and blue baggy pants with straps. His bare foot tapped as he picked up another box and began to unload.

Sango turned a questioning gaze to Kaede. "Kaede…who is this?"

Kaede looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry, Sango, but I couldn't keep Miroku's room free anymore. Mr. Jaamaru was looking for somewhere to stay, but he was turned down everywhere, so…"

"So you gave him his room? You promised you'd…" Sango turned around to leave. She wasn't angry. She was sad….Sad that the last thing that gave her hope of Miroku's return had died.

"Hey….wait…" A toneless, almost bored voice, drifted over to her.

Sango turned around. The person still had his back to her as he dug in a box.

"Sango…am I right?" More ruffling.

Sango nodded and stood where she was. For the first time, she got a look at the figure. A soft face, with cold silver eyes. "Can you maybe stay and help me unpack with Kaede? You only need to stay until my friend comes to help me."

Sango stayed silent. This person….he ….he…

Kaede walked up and smiled. "I think that's a great idea. Of course, you don't have to help if you don't want to, dear."

"I'll help." Sango said, walking over to him. "First I'll need to know your name since you know mine."

The man, he looked more like a teen then anything else, looked surprised but then soon adopted his normal bored look. "Call me Itachio. Only old dudes call me Mr. Jaamaru. That makes me sound old too."

For some reason, the edges of Sango's mouth almost lifted to form a smile. Kaede might have noticed because she smiled. "Well, let's get started."

Throughout the rest of the afternoon, the three lifted and moved things around. Kaede eventually had to leave because, "I feel like my back is broken." As she walked down the hall to her room, Kaede smiled to herself, while they were talking, Sango's voice had gotten back some of her soul. Maybe leaving the two of them alone would retrieve all of her soul.

"Where do we put this, Itachio?"

"O-over here. Next to the window." Itachio grunted. "It's friggin heavy."

"You're telling me?"

After dropping the t.v. on it's spot near the window, Itachio and Sango leaned on the wall next to each other wiping off sweat and trying to get some air into their lungs. For a day near winter, it sure was hot. Maybe it didn't have anything to do with the temperature.

Itachio looked at Sango for a few minutes until she noticed she was looking at her. "What are you looking at?"

He broke into a smile to reveil retainers on his teeth.

She remained impassive.

"I just noticed. Dude, you look pretty cute up close."

Sango gasped in surprise. He was still smiling at her, and she quickly looked away. "Why do you say that?" She walked across the room and sat on the sofa.

"Well, it's 'cause you are." Itachio replied. "Want something to drink?"

Sango nodded.

The two sat next to each other on the sofa drinking cans of Red Bull.

Itachio read the can before saying. "It says this gives you wings. Load of bullshit."

Sango didn't reply. It just reminded her of something Miroku said once. Miroku…..

"I have to go."

"Wha.." Itachio watched as she got up and left. Just as she was about to walk out the front door, he called after her. "Thanks for helping me out."

Sango gave a small wave in return before a closing the door.

The door opened again to reveil a young girl. She had orangish-black hair she kept smashed underneath a black beanie. A black sweatshirt with a hood and black baggy pants. The girl was about 5'4" and was pale and looked extremely thin. She gave Itachio a questioning look. "Who's that? Neighbor?"

"Yes, and you're late. You told me you would help me unpack." Itachio said, tossing a can of empty Red Bull on the ground.

"Yeah, well, things came up. Now….have you found a girl yet? I think my major is match-making."

"Is that even a course in college?"

"It will be when I rule the world."

"Kids and their wild imaginations these days."

"I heard that."

"Damn you, then."

"Yeah, I know. I love you too, fuckhead."

"I knew it was only a matter of time before you start cussing again."

"Shut up."

"Shutting up."

**End Chapter 1

* * *

**

Please review and tell me what you think of it, peoples. Thank you for taking your time to read the test chapter. As you know, there would be several OCs of mine, I hope it doesn't ruin the flow of the story….A warning: some show characters would act out of character in this story. Oh, yes, I apologize if I used wrong grammar and spelling and all that other shit. I'm just too lazy to edit it. XD


	2. Chapter 2: Cupidina Strikes

**Disclaimer: FUCK THIS STUPID DISCLAIMER! I DON'T OWN INUYASHA, BUT I DO OWN MY OOCS!**

Psyche: (sticks fingers in ears) What the hell are you smoking?

Big Q: (sigh) Why is it that these days young people use improper language so much?

Psyche: You're still a 'young people'.

Big Q: No, I'm not.

Psyche: Yes, you are.

Big Q: No, I'm not.

Psyche: Yes, you are.

Big Q: No, I'm not.

Psyche: Then why're you so short?

Big Q: Honey, I may look shorter than you, but trust me, I'm way older than you'll ever be.

Psyche: (counts fingers)

Big Q: (sighs) Why am I surrounded by such incompetent people?

**Mucho thankies to those that reviewed!**

**KiT: Glad that you like it! I'll try to update every week, but with going to Hartnell for classes Monday thru Thursday every week, I can probably only update every 2 weeks. (grabs a bazooka and blows up Hartnell) TAKE THAT! THIS IS WHAT I THINK OF COLLEGES! TAKE THAT, AND THIS, AND A PIECE OF THIS, AND A PIECE OF THAT!**

**crimsonwhispers:** **O.o I'm also flipped out at how much we have in common. (does a tarot reading) I'm glad that there's another person out there just like me. (sniff sniff) Kikyo doesn't get enough respect. Do you read Anime Beckett? Well, the person that does the Inuyasha columns is a fuckass cold-hearted bitch. She makes fun of Kikyo everytime she gets to. Plus she gives wrong info. Why the fuck is she even the Inuyasha expert! YOU HEAR THAT YOU BITCH, REBECCA BUNDY! WE DON'T ALL HATE KIKYO, YOU FUCKASS BITCH! **

Big Q: T.T Too much cuss words for me to handle!

Psyche: (pats back sympathetically) Yes, yes, this is the 21st century. Get with the changes!

Big Q: T.T The world is so cruel.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Cupidina Strikes**

After helping out Itachio, Sango returned to her room and back into depression. She sat down on the sofa and covered her eyes with the back of her hands. Kirara was asleep in her lap, but Sango's mind bore another memory. Another painfilled memory. All those memories that was once filled with happiness dissolved into more pain. Like Inuyasha said, no matter how much all of them wishes it, Miroku would never smile at them ever again. That would mean that all those times they did things together, going to the same highschool, same college, mostly same classes in middle school, were never worth it.

Someone's knocking on her door stirred her from her thoughts.

Kirara looked up at Sango to see if she would open the door. But her mistress stayed where she was. Kirara closed her eyes and continued napping. Kirara knew that Sango never opened the door to anyone unless it was Kaede or Inuyasha who would often kick open the door, then ask questions later.

The stranger knocked again, followed by a familiar voice. "Sango? Are you still in there. It's me."

Sango turned towards the door at the bored voice.

An unfamiliar voice that sounded like a child spoke up. "She's probably not there. Either that, or she's ignoring you."

"Mmm…" Itachio replied.

The other person obviously tired of just standing there spoke in an annoyed voice. "Whatever I'm leaving. I'll call you when I get home."

As the footsteps receded down the hall, Itachio spoke up. "I know you're there, dude. And don't think I'm a stalker or anything 'cause I-"

Sango had opened the door before he had finished speaking and a surprised look filled Itachio's features before he spoke again. "Were you sleeping? Sorry."

Sango just shrugged before looking back at him. "What do you want."

Itachio held up a half a can of Red Bull. "You fergot your drink."

Sango took it from his extended hand and looked at him, surprised. "You knocked on my door for half a day just to give me this?"

Itachio shrugged as if it was nothing. "It's yours isn't it?"

Sango nodded. Itachio turned around to leave, but Sango called to him. "Wait."

Itachio turned his head. "Thank you."

He smiled, again showing his retainers. "No big deal, neighbor."

After shutting the door, Sango fingered the can in her hands. This little useless thing. Itachio had given it back to her because it was hers. Why didn't he just throw it away. Why didn't he just leave her alone. He called her his neighbor. All the other residents at Feudal Village Apartments heard about their young neighbor's depression and decided that solitude with one's pains is the best cure to pain. Boy, are they wrong. Pain+ More Pain Being fucked for life.

Sango frowned. Something just spoke in her. Maybe she should just forget all this sadness and pain… But forgetting all this would mean forgetting about Miroku. Isn't Miroku the source of her loneliness? Shouldn't she be forgetting Miroku? No. She loved him too much.

With a sigh, Sango changed into something more suitable for the outside, grabbed her purse, stuffed Kirara into the purse, and walked out the front door. Maybe it was time for some fresh air. Sango walked by Kaede on the way out. The old lady had been working her garden. Kaede practically dropped the hoe on her toes. "Sango, dear! Where are ye going!"

Sango turned around, her voice remained like a doll, but there was something else in it. Just a little something. "Work."

After Sango left, Kaede threw a clump of dirt at the other residents' windows until they opened up, shouting and complaining.

"What's the matter with ya, Kaede?"

"Sango's going to work!"

"What."

"The girl's going to work!"

They all gasped and started clapping and shouting encouragements to Sango. Some old fellows even went outside and started dancing. (A/N: Old people dancing…WRONG MENTAL IMAGE!) It was as if Sango going to work was the next best thing that happened to the world since the invention of the telephone.

Sango turned around when she heard someone calling her name. Her neighbors were all shouting and waving at her. And was that Kaede dancing on the lawn! "Uh…" Okay, that was plain crazy.

* * *

Meanwhile at the nearly-empty Miko Internet Café/Bar, a surprised Kikyo looked up to see Sango walk in.

"I'm back."

"Sango!" An excited Koharu ran over to her friend and gave her a big hug. "It's so great to have you back!"

Sango almost got her spine bent the other way when Momiji and Botan hugged her from behind. "Sango, your back!"

"Goodbye extra shifts!"

It was as if she didn't even feel the hugs, Sango just walked into the employees' room. "Yeah, I'm back."

Momiji turned to her long-haired friend Botan. "Is it just me or has her voice gotten even more bland?"

"It's just you."

Kikyo walked in while Sango was putting on the white and red apron and crossed her arms across her chest. "Sango, I thought I told you to come back with a smile on Wednesday."

Sango remained silent. Kirara jumped out of her mistress's purse and ran over to Kikyo and purred, rubbing herself on Kikyo's leg.

"Awww….Kirara! It's good to see you too." Kikyo picked the little yellow and black cat up.

"I just decided I wanted to come." Her response was simple, short, and emotionless.

Kikyo sighed and placed a disappointed Kirara on the ground. "You know, the way you talk. If I didn't know any better than I'd say you're just like that regular. Now what was his name again. The one that always comes with that little girl. His butler is a little bastard if you ask me."

"Sesshomaru." Sango replied going back to the counter.

"Yeah, him. It's like, he was dropped on his head as a baby and lost all nerve cells that show emotion." Kikyo said, following Sango.

"Some people are born that way…" Sango replied. _I know I wasn't. I was able to feel emotion once. Before he died…_

"Hey, Sango!" A cheerful voice interrupted her thoughts. Sango looked up and saw that it was her friends Kagome and Inuyasha.

"'Sup." Inuyasha said, always trying to act like the pimp.

"Well, well, well, I never knew that my little sister would come visit me at my work place." Kikyo said, leaning on the counter.

Inuyasha shifted a little uncomfortably. Ever since he and Kikyo broke up in highschool, he had been acting uncomfortable around her. Like whenever she would step into a room, he would step out. She couldn't blame him. They had trusted each other so much, but then that trust was broken. They just couldn't connect anymore. (A/N: No, I didn't mean that in a nasty way.)

Kagome clicked her tongue in annoyance when Inuyasha went outside to, "Need some fresh air…" "He acts like a man, then runs away like a little boy. Honestly."

"Hey, I heard that!"

Kagome just rolled her eyes and smiled at Sango and Kikyo. "Anyways, Inuyasha and I were thinking about all of us going as a group to Las Vegas for some Sin City fun. What do you think? You can bring anyone you want."

Kikyo slapped the counter. "I am so in! It's the perfect chance for me to introduce you guys to my new boyfriend: Suikotsu!"

A loud cough from Inuyasha was heard from outside.

The two sisters exchanged a high five, but Sango didn't share the same bubbly excitement. "I'm sorry. I feel like staying home."

Kikyo and Kagome looked at each other. Kagome gave an assuring smile. "Don't worry. We understand. Maybe next time, right?"

Kikyo, however thought differently. She dragged her sister out of Sango's hearing. "She needs to get involved. It's the only thing that's gonna help her. If you keep letting her back out like this, she'll never get any better."

Kagome smiled. "Don't worry, she's getting there already. I can see it on her face."

Kikyo looked at Sango for a few minutes before looked back at her sister. "What do you mean."

Kagome giggled. "You'll see in time. It's going to be more obvious if she sees her Cupid more."

Kikyo was puzzled. "She's found somebody she likes? I thought she's still hooked on Miroku. I mean, isn't that the reason why she's still depressed." Kikyo took another look at her employee before sighing. "I guess you do know her better than me."

**End Chapter 2

* * *

**

Phew, that took a while. I was typing non-stop. So, people, tell me what you thought of that! Review! (Flames welcome.)


	3. Chapter 3: Blind Date

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. I'm just a retarded little dog-monkey. (Don't ask.)**

Psyche: What's a dog-monkey?

Me: I thought I said to don't ask.

Psyche: Well, how can I not ask?

Big Q: You two shouldn't be holding a smart conversation. It might be too much for your brains…

**Again, mucho thankies to KiT and crimsonwhispers for reviewing!**

**KiT: I swear it was nirvana! (does another tarot reading) I swear it was a total coincadink. I only picked Las Vegas 'cuz me and my cousins went there for Winter Break last year. The place was pretty much tight. ('cept for the guys and the one girl that was passing out porn…eeeeeeeewwwwwww) We didn't walk the whole strip, just part of it and when we got back to the MGM hotel, I woulda amputated my feet if my sister didn't stop me. O.o I know the second chapter was a little confusing. Didn't make much sense, huh? (Didn't make much sense to me either…)**

**crimsonwhispers: Thankies for the review!**

Okie dokies! Here is a little info on what the hell's being going on in the first two chapters. Sango never got over her depression from Miroku being killed in the 9/11 incident. Friends and family tried to help, but nothing worked for four years. That is, until the new guy across the hall moved in…Anyways, Kagome and Inuyasha planned a trip to Las Vegas for some fun in Sin City. (NOTE: Since their all busy with work and stuff, the trip would be postponed until November. It's currently the end of August in the story. Gee, long wait, huh? 3 months of waiting because that's when most of them will be having a break from work. When I said 'them', I didn't just mean the Inuyasha group. Hehehehehehehehehe…..) Maybe Sango'll change her mind with the upcoming events that will twist her life.

Big Q: (claps) I congratulate you. This is the first time that you have written something so…so…complicated!

Psyche: (sniff sniff) She's all grown up!

* * *

**Chapter 3: Blind Date**

Accepting things for what they are, and moving on in life is the key for a happy life. Sure, things may not turn out the way you want them, you could still be happy. I'm not saying that you should be happy with a replacement or something. Replacements are usually good for a while before they break, or you lose them. Then pretty soon, you'll have to get another replacement. It's a continuous cycle of never-ending tragedies. But if you get something new, like a different flavor of potato-chips instead of the same ole boring salty ones, then you might find that you like something else too.

Sango sat at a table underneath a huge umbrella for shade outside of Starbucks. It was unusually sunny and warm today. Okay, sunny and warm aren't the right words to describe it. IT. WAS. FUCKING. HOT. LIKE. HELL. Sango sighed as she cupped a side of her face and leaned on the table. Her medium-sized cup of cappuccino sat at the center of the table, still smoking. Smoking. Smoking like when the Twin Towers crashed down to Earth.

Sango winced and shook her head. She needed to stop thinking about it. Sure she could have gotten a free cup of cappuccino back at Miko's, but with Koharu, Momiji, and Botan there, nobody could get a quiet drink of coffee. The three of them were just so energetic. Sango was once like them too: full of life and energy, a smile permanently glued on her face, and a laughter once in a while too. The old Sango went down with Miroku and all the other poor people that had died…

THUMP.

Sango had her thoughts interrupted when someone took a seat in the chair facing her. When she looked, Sango saw it was a young girl. Even though it was a hot day, the child still wore a black beanie mashed over her messy shoulder-length, orangish-black hair, black sweat shirt with a hood of all things, and black pants. Way too much black for a hot day.

The girl sighed, her Asian features showed a rather stressed look. "This is waaaay too much work for me. Too much." With another sigh, the girl reached across the table, grabbed the cup of steaming cappuccino, AND GULPED DOWN HALF OF THE DAMN THING. With a belch, she set the cup back where it was and sat facing the street.

Sango blinked. This young girl had downed half of the cappuccino in one fucking gulp. That's bullshit. She must of noticed something because she slowly turned to look at Sango as if just noticing that she was there.

"Oops….Was that yours?" The girl laughed a little nervously.

"Yes." Sango was still surprised that the kid didn't scream and run to the nearest ice-cream store.

"Oh…Eh heh heh…Sorry, I didn't see you." The girl looked nervous. She turned away and seemed to be conversing to herself in another language. Sango was sure she heard a sigh, everything else made as much sense to her as shit. _"Aya, nama bunn. Gumun mayo candal ta. Wuh yeh buu ss ii ggu sha tzi. Nama bunn! Nama bunn!"_ The girl seemed to be pummeling herself with insults before she turned back to Sango. "Um…Do you want me to buy you another one of 'em."

"No, I didn't really feel like drinking it anyway." Sango could tell by the way the girl was looking at her that she thought she was a freak, but the expression on her face quickly slid off to one of excitement.

"Hey! I know!" After digging in her side-bag for a few minutes, the girl pulled out a small notepad. After pulling a pen from out of nowhere, the girl slammed the notepad onto the table loudly and faced Sango, a hi-I'm-a-rich-bitchy-business-owner-that's-gonna-rip-you-off-but-you-don't-know-yet smile plastered on her face. "Are you interested in going on a date with the hottest guy in the world? Even though I think he's an idiot, I also think that you two are alike in some ways."

Sango's face didn't show any emotion, but her brain was saying, "What the fuck?" over and over. Was this young girl trying to get her a blind date? Maybe she wasn't a young girl after all. "Excuse me, but who are you."

She was in mid-rant about how the look on their faces were exactly the same too when her speech came to a halt. A confident smile stretched onto her face, showing bright blue braces. "I'm glad you asked. I'm Flarenii _Joming_, the world's future best match-maker! In case you're wondering, no, I'm not some midget twenty-something year old. I'm only twelve." Her smile dissolved into a I-dare-you-look. "Okay, go ahead. Laugh."

"There's nothing to laugh about." Sango replied. "You can tell my blind date that I'm not interested."

Flarenii, at least that's what the name she told Sango, visibly deflated. Confidence and all. "B-but…my friend needs a date. I'm mean he's a total loser without a girl! And I already promised him that I'll find someone just like him! Please,…eh…Sorry, didn't catch your name."

Flarenii was already starting a business with her and she didn't even know her client's name yet? Business people these days only remember the amount of money that the client owes them. "Sango."

"So, Sango, how 'bout it. It's only one night, and if you think he's not your tight, which I seriously doubt since you guys both have this stuck up look and shit…_cough_, you can kick him in the balls and be on your way. Not to mention we won't ever bother you again." Flarenii flashed her a it's-fool-proof smile.

Sango bit her lip and Flarenii seemed to be enjoying the fact that she was having trouble thinking about it. Miroku…But maybe she could go and spend the night getting to know another man and decide whether or not to forget Miroku. Are you outta your mind! Forget Miroku! Don't let this pint-sized little brat brainwash you! Her brain argued back, but it's not like she has to like the guy. The kid said that she could dump him if he doesn't suit her tastes!

While her insides were all voicing their opinions, Flarenii spoke up. "Of course, if you choose not to go, then I'll also label you 'Lesbian.' I mean, no girl could resist a healthy young idiot in his primes. Well, maybe except me. But I'm not a lesbian."

Sango glared at Flarenii, who just stuck her tongue out at her. She wasn't about to let that KID have her way with her. What's the worst that could happen? Sango sighed. "Fine. But you'll never bother me again."

"We'll never bother you again." Flarenii repeated, scribbling something on the notepad. She handed the ripped page to Sango and stuffed her things back into her bag. "Make sure you're there at the right place and time tonight. Without further ado, Ciao!"

Before Sango could do anything, Flarenii had ran into the crowd of people crossing the street. Sango shook her head. "Kids…" The paper read:

_Joming Dragon House_

_14th Street Next to KFC (fuck you Colonel!)_

_6:00 P.M. Be there. _

In a hasty, child's handwriting. Sango looked at it in a few seconds. If she didn't show up, nothing would matter right. But if she were to run into Flarenii again like today, she'll never hear the end of it. Sango got up and muttered, "Like I said, what's the worst that can happen?" The couple at the table next to her were getting intimate.

* * *

Her watch read two o' clock. Sango decided to take the longer way home through the park. As soon as she stepped onto park property, a wave of once-happy memories rushed at her. This was where she and Miroku had shared their first kiss underneath the moonlight. This was where Miroku would take her when she was sad. This was their happy place.

"Hey, Sango!"

The orange-haired Shippo waved at her from the ice-cream man's cart. Sango waved back and followed the young Shippo to a bench. Shippo must have noticed Sango's uneasiness and asked, "What's wrong, Sango. Is something on your mind?" He was always the worrisome friend.

"Well…" Sango decided to tell Shippo what about the blind date and Flarenii and her mysterious date. She told Shippo everything.

The young boy finished his ice cream while thinking. "Hmmmm….." After a moment, Shippo opened his eyes and smiled at Sango. "I think you should go. It's a great chance to meet new people, besides, what could go wrong. If you want, I'll go with you."

So, this was Shippo's advice. Go and make a new friend. Very childish, but wise advice. Sango tried to manage a smile. "Thank you, Shippo, but you don't have to."

The youngster smiled. "Well, I'm happy to know that I helped you. See you around, Sango!" Shippo hopped off the bench and ran home.

Sango watched Shippo as he disappeared from her sight. Sango sat there and closed her eyes. She just sat there…

Sango started to nod until she woke up with a start. The ice-cream man was still there. The sun had gone down and her watch said it was 5:45. Fuck! She was asleep this whole time! Sango got up and hurried home. There was still time for her to change into something else. At least, I think there was still enough time.

* * *

"Keep the change."

"Yeah, thanks."

Sango stepped away from the taxi. She still couldn't get a car she wanted yet. It was a rather old restaurant with nice parking space. On it's small lawn, there was a large, light-up sign that said:

_Joming Dragon House_

_Chinese Buffet and Food To Go_

_Hunan and Szechuan Style_

So, maybe a relative of Flarenii's owned this restaurant. When Sango went in, the first thing that greeted her, was the long line of people waiting for a seat, a stressed teen trying to find seats for them, the smell of Chinese food, the noise of people talking and babies shitting in their pants and crying, and a fat Buddha statue. It was twice as warm inside then it was outside, and the line seemed to be getting nowhere.

Sango stood on tiptoe, kind of hard when you're wearing high-heels, and tried to catch sight of Flarenii. The spunky twelve-year-old was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she got the wrong place. Just when Sango turned around she ran into someone. When she opened her eyes, she was staring at someone's chin.

"'Sup, Sango. Whatcha doin' here."

Sango looked up and the last person she expected to see was looking down at her, Itachio. It took that moment to realize how close they were standing next to each other. "I-i'm meeting someone here."

Itachio shrugged and looked around for someone. When he spotted the stressed teen coming back to escort the next group of people to a table, he whistled. "Hey, Laramie, where's the dog-monkey?"

The teen, Laramie, the short and plump type of figure, threw him a quizzical look. Then she looked at Sango before her mouth formed a big 'O'. "She's inside, I'll go get her." Before leaving, she turned back towards Sango and Itachio. "She reserved a table over there for you." Laramie pointed to a booth next to a low wall.

Itachio nodded before looking down at Sango. "Are you here to meet someone."

Sango nodded.

"Are they here yet."

Sango shrugged. "I don't know what they look like. I'm here on a blind date."

Itachio gave her the same smile that he gave her earlier that day. "Me, too. I don't she's here yet either. Wanna sit with me until your guy comes."

Sango nodded and headed over towards the booth. It was set with napkins, spoons, and forks. There was two tea cups, and two classes of ice water. Oh, so this was how it was. As soon as they sat down facing each other, Sango spoke up. "Do you know who your date looks like?"

Itachio scratched his wild hair silver hair. "Nope."

Sango sighed. He's like a child, simple and stupid. "I think I'm your date."

"Exacto. One of you peeps found out!" An all-too familiar voice called from the other side of the low wall. Flarenii's trademark-business smile looked down upon them. Without her black beanie, she looked like a whole different person to Sango. Her wide grin soon turned into a sour smile as she chucked two menus at Itachio and hissed. "Don't act innocent! Lara told me you used the 'DM' word. I'll get your ass later, I gotta job to do now. So consider yourself lucky." She disappeared from the other side and popped up next to their booth.

Sango glowered at her. "So this is my blind date?"

Flarenii examined her cut nails and replied. "Yep."

Sango turned her glare at Itachio.

Itachio looked confused. "What did I do."

Sango rubbed her temples. This was too much. A little kid suddenly pops up and offers her a blind date. Turns out that date was her newly moved in neighbor. OMFG, this is just too much.

Flarenii smiled. "It's no biggie. Just enjoy dinner."

Sango glared. It seemed

Itachio was still confused.

Flarenii's smile slid off. "Or not."

**End Chapter 3

* * *

**

Just in case anyone was wondering what Flarenii was babbling about in Chinese earlier. Here's the translation:

"_Aya, nama bunn. Gumun mayo candal ta. Wuh yeh buu ss ii ggu sha tzi. Nama bunn! Nama bunn!"_-"Sigh…So stupid! Didn't even see her! And I'm not even a blind person! So stupid! So stupid!

Oh yeah, I don't think _Joming_ is an authentic Chinese last name. Kinda pathetic since I'm Chinese myself. No, Flarenii isn't related to Yao Ming. In Chinese, _Joming_, means to 'save life.' I figured that would be Flarenii's last name since she's kinda the Cupidina between Sango and Itachio. She's saving Sango from depression. Or something like that shit. Anyway, review. (Flames welcome.)


	4. Chapter 4: Bump

**Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, the moon would be made of cheese. (I hate cheese by the way.)**

Big Q: You're doing pretty good in this fanfic.

Psyche: Considering that she has more than two reviews.

Me: T.T Why must you guys be so cruel to me?

Big Q: Oh, I'm not cruel. I'm just being nice to idiots.

Me: T.T That's cold!

Psyche: (looks around) What's cold? It's July!

Big Q: Yes, dear, it's July. -- This is what I mean when I said I'm just being nice to idiots…

Psyche: Hey!

**Mucho thankies to those that reviewed!**

**KiT: Thank you, KiT, for reviewing all my chapters so far and for continuing to review the rest of the chapters! (At least until the story ends!) Thankies mucho for your support!**

**sangohieirock: Dude, I totally agree with your name. The best crossover couple there is SangoHiei. Nobody can top them. NOBODY. (turns to KuramaSango pairings) YOU HEAR THAT! NOBODY!)**

Anyway, a quick summary of the story! It was a fucking-hot-like-hell day and Sango was at Starbucks getting a cup of coffee. (Why else would she be there? Getting a cup of sugar for her grandma? That didn't' make sense…) Suddenly, this little Chinese kid drank half of the damn **STEAMING** liquid and somehow got Sango to go on a blind date with her "friend that looks like a loser without a girl." Flarenii, the girl, left before Sango could choke her and scream: "NO, THANK YOU! I'M STILL HOOKED OVER MY DEAD BOYFRIEND!" Sango met Shippo at the park and Shippo told her that she should go and "make some new friends." Arriving at _Joming Dragon House_, where her blind date was waiting, she bumped into the last person she thought she would meet, her neighbor across the hall: Itachio Jaamaru. Here's the twist: he's her blind date.

Whew! That was one quick summary. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 4: Bump**

"Fuck, quit acting like such a big baby. It ain't that bad." A young Chinese girl said handing her older friend an ice pack with an almost-apologetic look. Almost is never enough. Twenty percent of her face read, "HAHA! You have got to be the world's number one foobar!" While the other eighty percent read, "Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Did you see the way she threw that sucker?"

A mumbled reply came from her friend, who let's just say has the entire left side of his face bigger than his right.

"Talk normal, dammit!" Flarenii yelled swinging a hit at the swollen side of his face. When a yelp greeted her, she pulled her hand back. "Oops, sorry, man. Fergot."

"Oww….T.T She's never going to look at me again." Poor little Itachio said, holding the ice pack to his face.

Flarenii sighed and dropped onto the sofa, crossing her arms across the chest. "Damn, your couch is way more comfy." The pair were at the feisty Flarenii's home in her living room. "Though I can't exactly say it was all your fault."

Itachio sighed as well. For a minute the two friends stayed quiet. "Did I really upset her that much."

Flarenii nodded, slouching a little more in the sofa. "Yep, that look on her face when she threw that punch. It was like you walking into her giving MJ a lap dance."

Itachio frowned in disgust. "Your brain's always in the gutter isn't it. Why would Sango be giving Michael Jackson a lap dance." He tried to glare at his young friend without causing too much pain to the left side of his face. "And she didn't punch me. It was more of a slap."

Flarenii snorted. "What's the difference? They both make you look like an ass, don't it?"

The young man slouched in his seat and reached for his tea cup on the coffee table between them. After taking a sip, Itachio seemed lost in thought.

Flarenii gave a fake gasp. "Oh. My. Lord. An ape is trying to think!"

Her little sarcastic outburst caused Itachio to glare at Flarenii before he turned to her, a question on his tongue. "What I don't understand is why she got all upset."

Flarenii stifled a yawn. "Who knows? Maybe she thought you were looking in her purse to see what kind of tampons she uses."

Itachio threw a pillow at the unsuspecting girl's face. "Just for the record, I wasn't. Maybe she uses maxi pads."

"And you say my brain is in the gutter?" The less-than-happy girl replied, throwing the pillow back at him. She threw her head back and growled in frustration. "And the date was going so well too!" She turned her gaze back at Itachio. "And you just had to fucken screw it up didn't you?"

"It's not like it's my fault." The bored voice was getting a tint of irritation in them. Why wouldn't it? It was only reasonable after getting stuck with a bratty little whiny girl that kept on berating him, insulting him, and even once kicking him, for a screwing up some silly little blind date with his neighbor.

"Maybe all that gel and cologne for the ladies are getting to your brain, fuzzhead." Flarenii retorted.

"Brat."

"Ass."

"He-she."

"Homo."

"Discrimination."

"Good Samaritan. And I got nothing against homosexuals. You're just an insult to them."

"Stick."

"Suck-dick little cock bastard."

"Cock bastard?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with a healthy little cock bastard? I hear the rest of the population is missing you."

"Anorexic little dog-monkey."

"That's it, you little son of a bitch!" Flarenii sprung from the sofa and tackled Itachio with an "Omph!"

"Watch it. Hey, I'm an injured civilian." Itachio said, trying to get the rabid little girl off of him. (A/N: That didn't sound right…)

"You fucken tofu! BalllickinglittlesonuvabitchthatfuckenissoannoyingthatIjustfucken&()&$#$&&(&(&(&($$&&&&()(()(+)+(()&&$$$#$#!#!#$#$$&&&$#$&&(&&$$#$$$&(&$$&&&&&$$." The rest of her insults were muffled as Itachio stuffed a nearby teddy bear in her mouth.

When Flarenii finally removed the furry object from her mouth, she chucked her saliva covered toy back at him. "I coulda suffocated! You jerkass!"

Itachio ducked, the drool-dripping teddy bear flying harmlessly over his head. "Woulda done the world a huge favor."

Flarenii took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, okay. Calm down. Woooooooooooooooooooosaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh……….." After a minute, Flarenii glared at him. "Just be glad Sango didn't kick you in the balls."

"What."

Flarenii gave him her brace-filled smile. "I told her that if she wasn't satisfied then she could kick you in the balls, guaranteed. But I guess she was too pissed to kick."

Itachio looked down at his friend in disbelief. "You told her that. What do I look like, some kind of your-money-back-guarantee thing."

"Exactly." The same piss-making smile.

Itachio sighed and really slumped into the sofa covering his eyes with his hand, the ice pack dripping away in his other hand.

Flarenii seated herself on the arm of the sofa next to him, her voice somewhat serious. "I think the reason that Sango was majorly pissed at you was…her period."

Itachio took a minute to give his friend a your-impossible glare. "Pft."

"Hey, it could happen." Flarenii said, shrugging. "I think it had to do with that guy she was talking about."

From the look that he gave her, it seemed that he didn't believe her. Itachio turned away.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Flarenii grabbed a fist-full of his silver-blue hair and turned him to face her. Her voice was dead serious. "I'm not cracking or anything. I think you really hurt her when you made an ass of yourself by making that stupid crack joke about the guy she was talking about."

Itachio yanked her fingers out of his hair. Massaging his scalp a little, Itachio thought back to the events that happened an hour ago.

* * *

_Flarenii's smile slid off her face like butter. "Or not."_

_Sango shook her head, and she almost looked like she rolled her eyes when she tooked a menu and began looking through the entrees. _

_Itachio just sat there, ignoring the looks that read I-bet-you're-going-to-screw-up-on-the-datefrom Flarenii._

_Sango's eyes appeared over the edge of the menu. "Aren't you going to look at the menu?"_

"_I'll eat whatever you eat." Itachio said, shrugging._

_It was either Flarenii's imagination or she was just plain crazy. She could have swore she saw Sango's eyes softening a little. The Cupidina shook it off as her going plain crazy._

_After the food arrived, carried over to their table by a very, very, very stressed Laramie, the two sat by themselves to stare at the food. Flarenii had shooed Laramie the away the minute the food touched the table. "They need some time ALONE."_

_Sango sat with her hands on her lap under the table; she looked across the table at Itachio. "Aren't you going to eat?"_

_Itachio just gave a Prince Charming smile. "Oh, but ladies first. I wouldn't be a gentleman if I dug in myself."_

_So far so good. Even though she insisted the couple needed some privacy, Flarenii was peeping in on the couple above the low wall. _

_Sango almost smiled when she helped herself to the noodles on the House Pan Fried Noodle Sizzling Plate. _(A/N: Sheesh, long name for a small dish.)

_During the whole dinner, the two had a mildly interesting conversation. Because of the noise of the other customers, Flarenii only managed to hear parts of it._

"_Do you have any younger er older siblings."_

_Sango played around with the slice of carrot left on her plate. "Yes, one. I have a little brother named Kohaku. He just got into 8th grade."_

_Itachio smiled, it was somewhat strained and almost sad. "I have a little sister too. I bet that she's nowhere as energetic as your little brother."_

_Sango looked at him strangely. _

_That ended the conversation. No matter how hard she strained to listen, Flarenii couldn't hear any more. Twice she almost tripped Laramie, who was carrying a large platter with dishes, when she was crouching down trying to hear better. Five times she was yelled at by her mother to get to work._

_After dinner, Itachio asked if she wanted to go for a late stroll in the park. A pained look flashed across Sango, but it evaporated in an instant. With a nod, the two walked towards the park, relatively close. _

_Flarenii had gotten permission to skip, Laramie downright protested. Extra work on an already stressed high school teen was enough to make her faint. While the two walked together in front, Flarenii followed, not bothering to keep quiet since they both knew she was with them._

_They got some hoots from a group of drunk juniors out late. The wolf calls and laughing stopped when Itachio glared, Sango glared harder, and Flarenii pulled a Smith & Wesson out of nowhere. They had know idea it was real, but not loaded. The group shuffled off faster than you could shout, "Fuck you!" after them._

_Okay, this was where it gone bad._

"_Hey, you wanna sit on the swing. I'll push you if you want." Itachio said, walking over towards the sets of swings._

"_I'm not a kid." Sango replied softly, but nevertheless, still followed him and sat down on the swing. As soon as Itachio began to push her softly, waves of memories began again to crash down upon Sango. She was sitting on this very same swing, on her very first date with Miroku. Except, he was the one that was pushing her, not Itachio._

_Sitting on the slide not far away, Flarenii pulled her digital camera out of her small side bag and took a shot. "Now don't they look cute together." the twelve-year-old muttered before her face broke into a grin. "Can't wait to blackmail them with this."_

_Suddenly, Sango spoke up. "This reminds me of another night a couple years ago." Why was she talking like this? She never talked about Miroku after the incident. So why was she now? And with a complete stranger. But he wasn't a stranger. He was Itachio, her neighbor. Did she really know anything about him? She knows he has a little sister. That doesn't count asmuch…_

"_How does it." Itachio continued pushing the swing each time it swung back._

"_Back, then Miroku used to push me…" Sango broke off into silence. _

"_Who's Miroku. An old lover." Itachio said, chuckling. I mean, come on. It was a joke._

_Sango tensed and turned around. Itachio expected her to turn around, laugh, and deny it like most girls do. Instead, he saw burning brown eyes filled with pain and anguish. Tears ran down her beautiful face as her anger filled eyes turned red._

_WHAM!_

_A right hooker straight in the face. Flarenii winced and muttered, "That had to hurt…" All the while she looked like she could care less and continued recording on her camera._

"_Miroku's not a past lover. I still do love him!" Sango shouted, her voice coarse,to Itachio's stunned and half red face. Tears fell down freely, with a sob, she turned and ran. Ran and ran, away from him and away from those awful memories._

_Itachio reached a hand out to her. To apologize, to call her name. But he didn't exist anymore. Not to her anymore. Then she was gone._

_Flarenii stood next to him shaking her head in disappointment. "Answer me this: How many idiots does it take to make their blind date run away in tears?"_

_Itachio didn't answer, he looked at where Sango was running. That same image running through his head over and over again. He didn't mean to hurt her feelings, honestly. Crack joke, turn, wham, shout, and run away. Hey, wasn't that a hit-and-run?_

"_One stupid idiot named Itachio. Good job." Flarenii said shaking her head and walked away.

* * *

_

"You could try apologizing." Flarenii spoke up. "But then again, she just might punch you again."

Itacho sighed and leaned back in the sofa. _I'm sorry, Sango.

* * *

_

Back in her apartment, Sango sat on her bed hugging her knees to her. Tears still spilling uncontrollably down her face. Kirara meowed and stayed at her mistress's side. She was loyal to Sango. She would stay with her forever.

Sango's shoulder shook from the racking sobs. She lifted her head a little to look at the picture on her lamp stand. Miroku… She broke into a fresh river of tears.

Flarenii sat on the window sill in her room, hugging a knee to her while her other leg dangled on the side.

Itachio walked down the street gloomly with his hands in his pockets, he stopped to look up at the stars.

_Stupid Itachio. _

**End Chapter 4

* * *

**

So how was this one, you guys? Good? Fair? Downright stupid? Just to let you know, Flarenii doesn't go around shooting people with that Smith & Wesson of hers. As for why she even carries one around, I explain in a later chapter. Please review! (Flames welcome.)


	5. Chapter 5: Coupon

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but I do own Flarenii, and Itachio 'cuz they're my fucking OOCs.**

Big Q: (shakes head) I said once and I'll say it again. You people never stop with the swear words.

Psyche: (loud voice) Fuck yeah! You fucking young people don't ever fucking stop fucking cussing. I'm mean, don't you have no fucking respect for your fucking elders?

Big Q: T.T Stop. I can't take all the "F" words!

Psyche: WTF is her problem?

Big Q: Lord, just shoot me. T.T

**Thank you, KiT, for continuing to review this story of mine even though no one else is reviewing! I greatly appreciate your support! (I think 75 percentof my reviews come from you actually.)**

Okie dokies, a summary of what happened in the last chapter!

On their date, we found out that Itachio actually has a little sister! But that's not important. Any who, things were going fine and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…Until Itachio said something to get Sango real pissed that she slapped him, HARD. (Flarenii claims that Sango had right hooked him.)

Psyche: (snort) Some summary, it doesn't even tell you anything good.

Me: Shut up. I'm suffering a minor writer's block.

Psyche: I'll let you know when I start caring.

Me: Shut up for God's sake.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Waiter**

If you dug a hole in the sand at the beach, it would eventually fill up again when the waves come crashing down on it right? Even if it was a really deep hole or a footprint it would disappear. Same thing with a person's heart. If someone dug a hole in your heart, the tides of a new friendship would eventually fill it up. It works even faster if the friendship were to turn into love.

It's been a week since her date with Itachio, Sango had pushed what happened at the park to the way back of her mind. Whatever, life still fucken moves when you don't.

It was a sunny afternoon when Sango walked in on Wednesday, without a smile plastered on her face. Kikyo sighed, it was too much for her to hope for anyway. It's been four years since the Sango she knew really smiled, this Wednesday isn't going to be anymore different. Customer's usual complaining, always an idiot breaking a coffee cup (we're really running out of those…), Botan or Momiji scaring someone away, and some ass harassing Koharu. OMFG, it's just too much fucking stress.

Kikyo snuck a look at Sango, who was sweeping up the pieces of a broken mug, the raven-haired woman sighed. If Miroku hadn't gave his life like the hero in some action-flick then number one: Sango would still be smiling, less customer's complaining, Koharu wouldn't get harassed as much, Botan and Momiji would be more controlled, mostly since they'll be busy watching their asses making sure that someone's hand aren't groping them, and she wouldn't be screaming in the morning to discover a grey hair in her brush. I just turned 26, dammit!

Sango hardly even noticed that Kikyo just fainted and that Botan and Momiji were fanning her, trying to get her awake while Koharu went to fetch some smelling salts. Let's see…it was around four in the afternoon. It was typical for Kikyo to just fall dead around thattimeduring those daysthat had bad business.

After cleaning up the mess some customer made, Sango got herself a cup of coffee. Koharu was still looking for the smelling salts and Kikyo was mumbling something about how she was going to lose all her hair by the time she turns 40. WTF? If someone needed a vacation, it was Kikyo. Come to think of it, didn't Kagome and Inuyasha plan on having a group trip to Las Vegas? As Sango sat down in front of a computer, she could feel her organs throwing another debate.

"I say she goes for some fun in Sin City!" Her brain stated all the while thinking about all the hot guys she could see. After all, all a brain does is think.

"Fuck no! Are you forgetting about Miroku already!" Her heart shouted back, tackling and pinning Brain.

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

Kidney shook her head. "Guys, this could go on all day…"

"Yes!"

"No!"

Sango leaned on the table for support, for some reason, she had a huge headache and her ears were ringing from some little voice inside her going, "Yes!", "No!" repeatedly.

Taking another sip of coffee, Sango noticed the chat that was going on in the computer. Obviously the last customer that had been using this computer hadn't bother to log off. It seemed that there was a person named PsychoKillerSpaghetti asking the other people in the chat room how to…

Sango scrolled up to see what the question was…How to find forgiveness in someone that right-hooked you in the face. Her face dropped into a frown, now didn't this sound familiar. She scrolled back down to see what was going on in the conversation as of now.

Cornboy81: Uh…hey!

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: Hi. (stare) If you hav nothing to contribute 2 my conversation than get da fuck outta here & find another room!

Sk8teLuvr12120: Geez, you didn't hav 2 bite his head off.

Daghostcheese: Can we get bak on topic?

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: Wut topic?

Daghostcheese: Da 1 about how 2 find forgivnes in sum1 tat rite-hooked u…

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: O yea!

Sango rolled her eyes, this Spaghetti person was an idiot, but she kept on reading.

Sk8teLuvr12120: Wut did u do in da 1st place?

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: (shuffle) Aktully, it wsn't me.

Daghostcheese: Den who was it?

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: A frend of mine did sumting fucken stupid & got his blind date 2 punch/slap him.

Sk8terLuvr12120: Ouch. Tat's gotta hrt…

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: Yesh, but tat's not da point.

Sango narrowed her eyes, this sounded just like what happened to her last week with…Sango shook her head, Itachio is a jerk and this was another person with the same problem! But then…why was she thinking of him. She wasn't supposed to think of him even if it was 'he's-a-jerk' thoughts.

Sango looked at the keyboard in front of her. The person's screen name was DemonKing2005. Maybe…

Daghostcheese: Tat kinda ting hapens w/ blind dates. It's expected.

DemonKing2005: If it was a blind date, den y is ur frend sp desperate 4 forgivnes tat his frend wud look 4 advice online?

Daghostcheese: (ponder) Gud question.

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: …

Sk8teLuvr12120: (giggle) Ooohhhh, mayb he fell 4 da blind date. (giggle)

For some reason, it was getting hot. Sango fanned her face as she followed the conversation intently. Then again, why should she? It's not like it was any of her business, the person could just be another jerk from the other side of the world doing something stupid just like Itachio. Just a coincidence. Really? Fuck no!

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: (thinking)…(evil plan forming) Heh heh heh heh…I jus tot of da gratest plan.

Daghostcheese: Grate fill us in.

PsychoKillerSpaghetti: 1 moment pleaz. Need 2 get evil laf outta system.

All the tables in Miko Internet Café/Bar with computers were round so there were monitors on each table facing different directions. It was then that Sango noticed that there was somebody sitting across from her.

"MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Sango almost fell from her seat as a loud booming laughter erupted in front of her, presumably the person across from her. Now that voice was familiar…The person was sort of short, but tall enough that the top of their forehead was visible above the monitor. He, or she, was wearing some sort of tye-dye colored beanie. Beanie. Now where did she see a beanie before.

Slowly, Sango peeked around her right trying to get a look at the person, but it seems that person was trying to get a look at her too. Quickly, Sango tried to look from her left side, but that person was doing the same thing. Right, damn, they're smart, evading her moves. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. It was almost like a metronome going back and forth.

Finally, Sango had enough of the person's games. She could've sworn that the last time she tried to look at her left, the person let a small laugh of mock. Why that sonova…! Sango stood right up so fast that the person was so shocked, they fell backwards in their chair.

"Ow! That fucken hurt!" An all to familiar voice complained.

Sango walked around the small table clustered with computers to see one of THE last people she wanted to see, Flarenii sitting on the floor rubbing the back of her head with a glare that could kill a lettuce on her face.

Both of them seemed to glare at each other, then they both yelled in each other's faces, "You!"

"What the fuck were you trying to do? Give me a friggin concussion why don't you!" Flarenii shouted, taking off her beanie and rubbing her head. Sango got a look at the words on her beanie, Rainbow Warrior?

Sango backed up and got a look at what Flarenii was wearing. The last time she was wearing all black, but this time she was wearing…A tye-dye beanie that said "Rainbow Warrior!" on it, a matching short-sleeved sweat shirt with a hood that had the words, "Support Gay Rights!(By the way, I'm not gay.)", and blue jeans. She still had that black God damn side bag of hers.

Flarenii noticed the look Sango was giving at her clothes. She raised an eyebrow. "Got something wrong with gays?"

Sango ignored that question and instead asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Do I have to tell a complete stranger why I'm here? No." Flarenii dusted off an imaginary speck of dirt on the back of her jeans before looking back at Sango. "What are YOU doing here?"

Sango crossed her arms in front of her. "I work here."

Flarenii looked surprised for a sec before pulling out her notepad and jotting something down quickly. She looked at Sango, planning on being a smart-ass, but her expression changed. She was curious."Who's Miroku?"

Sango stiffened, herface went from annoyed to emotionless. Before she could say anything, Flarenii brought her hand in front of her in a defense posture. "And don't you right-hook me too. I'm not going to make a lame-ass crack joke. I respect the dead, unlike some bastard that I know."

Sango stayed silent before asking Flarenii, "Why do you want to know? And why are you helping him?"

"What?" The young twelve-year-old raised an eyebrow, as if she was confused.

"This!" Sango almost shouted pointing to the monitor where the chat had stopped.

The Chinese girl's mouth formed a big 'o' before looking back at Sango. "I'm not helping because I want to. I'm getting paid."

Of course, a business woman is always a business woman in all areas. Before Sango could ask who was paying her, a voice caught her attention.

"Sango!" Arms wrapped around her shoulders in a hug.

Kagome's smile greeted a surprised Sango. Inuyasha walked in after Kagome with Shippo behind him. Our silver-haired dude made sure that he didn't walk near Kikyo when he stood next to Sango. Shippo however didn't get a chance to say "Hi." to Kikyo as Momiji and Botan rushed at him with open arms. Literally.

"Who's this? Friend of yours?" Inuyasha asked, picking Flarenii up by the collar of her shirt.

Both Kagome and Inuyasha's eyebrows made like the Rock when they read the girl's shirt.

Sango looked away. "No, I don't know her, but she was starting to annoy me."

"A-annoy you? Oh, I'll fucking annoy you all right!" Flarenii flailed and tried to get out of Inuyasha's grip.

Inuyasha didn't even seem troubled, he gave the girl a shake that made her braces jiggle. "Little brats like you shouldn't be using big words."

"Look who's talking." Flarenii smirked and pulled her Smith & Wesson right in front of Inuyasha's face and pulled the trigger.

There was a large popping noise as a mini-flag with the word Bang! written on the small piece of clothshot out which caused our dear Inuyasha to jump and drop our very disgruntled Flarenii on her ass on the floor. The spunky twelve-year-old scrambled onto her feet and slammed a few dollar bills on the counter in front of Koharu's face before taking off calling a, "This isn't the last of me!" over her shoulder.

"Wha…" Kagome started, but Inuyasha yelled over her.

"Hey, watch it, kid!"

Flarenii had ran right smack in the middle of the street with a huge freighter truck coming at her. At the last minute, she turned around and waved goodbye to our lovely heros with a I-love-to-annoy-geeks-like-you smirk on her face. The truck honked and drove straight down the street.

Kagome gasped, believing that the truck had ran her over. Sango was shocked as well, but that changed when the truck passed. There was nobody there, and no still form of a poor kid that got ran over. Then where did Flarenii poofed to?

"Well, that was weird." Inuyasha muttered.

Sango continued to look at the street. What did Flarenii want with her? She told her that after the date, she wouldn't bug her anymore. And that didn't count as bugging her? I think not!

Sango shook herhead andturned her attention back at her best friend. "What did you come to see me about, Kagome?"

Kagome seemed lost in thought before, "Oh, yeah!" Her cheerful face broke into a smile. "Inuyasha and I came to invite you to a late lunch and an early dinner."

"A linner!" Shippo said, appearing at Kagome's side. Lucky him, he had gotten away from Botan and Momiji's grasps.

"A linner?" Inuyasha repeated, obviously not getting the philosophy of something similiar to 'brunch.'

Sango was about to decline when Kagome pulled out a slip of paper and showed it to her. "I won it at a drawing at work. It's 20 percentoff at this really fancy restaurant in town. So I thought I wouldn't let it go to waste and invite all my friends to enjoy a fine meal!"(A/N: I can't write Kagome to save my life…)

"So you coming or what?" Inuyasha asked, crossing his arms.

Before Sango could answer, Kagome made her way over to her fallen sister. It was like a sappy Shakespearian play. Kagome clasped her Kikyo's hand in hers. "My dear sister, join us in our finest hour!"

Kikyo threw her head back with the back of her hand on her forehead. Very dramatic. "Alas, I cannot. I must watch this horrid cafe of mine in hopes of other customers!" She held both Kagome's hands in hers. "But go, my young sister, run! Use your discount coupon! Run and forget about me!"

Very, very, very, very dramatically Kagome ran slow-motion away in a tearful break from her sister. "I'll be back, my sister!" Kikyo and Momiji and Botan waved goodbye dramatically.

As soon as all the fuzziness disappeared, Kagome sped like Flash out the door and into Inuyasha's brand new Chevy Malibu. Honking the horn, she shouted. "Come on, Inuyasha! We don't have all day!"

Inuyasha shook his head and muttered something like Shakespeare was trashing the minds of all the hot chicks these days before grabbing Shippo and dragging him outside. Sango sighed and grabbed her purse, discarding her apron on the way out, strange friends she had that was true. Strange friends that made her happy.

* * *

"This is the place." Inuyasha growled, looking the place up and down. "Dark Horizon? What kind of name is that?" 

Shippo shook his head like Inuyasha was some kind of a retard. "It's a fancy restaurant so it makes sense to have a fancy name. No, duh."

"Shaddap! I knew that!" As usual, Inuyasha bonked Shippo. Shippo cried. And Kagome bonked Inuyasha harder.

Sango shook her head (A/N:Boy, people have been shaking their heads alot these days.),opened the door and walked in. It was a nice, and largely spaced restaurant with a lot of tables, waiters and waitresses running around with their customer'sorders. It was a fancy restaurant alright, complete with the suits and tuxedos. Even the chefs coming out of the bathrooms had some type of order.

"Wow, this is so nice!" Kagome squealed from somewhere behind her.

"Keh." Inuyasha said, but by the sounds of it, he was a little impressed.

Shippo sniffed the air. "And the food smells so good!"

"Hello there, you beautiful ladies and not-so-beautiful germs. Welcome to our beyond fancy restaurant, Dark Horizon. May I be of any assistance?" A silk, smooth voice said.

The figure did a bow and as soon as he looked up with that same Prince Charming on his face, Sango gasped.

That face belonged to Itachio.

**End Chapter 5

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**

So, how was that, peoples! I really(x50 billion katrillion) hope that some other people besides my good friend KiT reviews! So…REVIEW! (Flames welcome.)


	6. Chapter 6: Dark Horizon

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. However, I do own Flarenii, Itachio, and other OOCs that pop up in this fic.**

Big Q: (relief sigh) Finally, no "F" words in your disclaimer.

Psyche: Let me fix that: **I don't fucken own Inuyasha! But I do fucken own Flar-!**

Big Q: (shaves luscious cake filled with sleeping juice down Psyche's mouth) There, there, be a good girl and eat the yummy cake.

Psyche: (chomp, chomp) This is fucken good!

Me: (digging in) You're not kidding!

Big Q: (jaw drop) You're not supposed to eat that! You're the author, we can't have you out cold!

Psyche and Me: (stop eating) WTF! (drop dead)

Big Q: (shakes head) I knew I shoulda taken that job offer at McDonalds back in the '60s.

**Thank you so much to those that reviewed! Yay! Now I have 10 reviews. (Sadly that's the most I got. T.T)**

**Graciously Taken: Thankies so much for the review! I know, I can't wait to post more chapters either!**

**KiT: Thankies mucho for being there to review, man. Appreciate it mucho! (For some reason, I've been practicing my Spanish over the summer…Uno, dos, tres…)**

**blndmnd1: Thank you for the review and I'm updating right now!**

**crimsonwhispers: Thankies for reviewing chapter four. O.o Ya know, you just might be right, we might be twins.**

Sniff, sniff. I feel so proud of myself. This is my one successful story. I actually have more fun reading other people's works then working on mine.

Okies dokies, a super mega short summary:

Sango goes to work on Wednesday and happens to find a chat room left on by a customer and the topic was: How do you find forgiveness in someone that right-hooked you in the face? Sound familiar. It should. (Unless, you got Alzheimer's or something like that…) It turned out the person that started the topic was Flarenii and she was using the computer right across from Sango. Flarenii questioned Sango as to who Miroku was, but before Sango answered Kagome, Inuyasha, and Shippo walked in to invite her to a linner. (Lunch + Dinner) Flarenii ran into the middle of the street and mysteriously poofed just as a truck was about to run her over. When they arrived at the fancy restaurant, it shocked Sango to see who the waiter was: Itachio.

Big Q: (shakes head) She is such a hypocrite. Last chapter she gave a summary that was so short it didn't count as a summary, and this chapter she said it was going to a 'super mega short' summary and she gave a huge one.

Big Q: Oh, yes, since the author is currently out cold (takes one moment to look at drooling and sleep talking corpse) I'll make an announcement. Last chapter was originally named "Waiter", but since the waiter wasn't exactly in the chapter until the end, the author changed it to "Coupon" since it was focused on Kagome's discount coupon. (listens to someone behind stage) What? I'm blabbing. Oh, sorry, on with the story!

* * *

**Chapter 6: Dark Horizon**

"Hello there, you beautiful ladies and not-so-beautiful germs. Welcome to our beyond fancy restaurant, Dark Horizon. May I be of any assistance?" A silk, smooth voice said.

The figure did a bow and as soon as he looked up with that same Prince Charming on his face, Sango gasped.

That face was just like Itachio's.

"What the-…Hey, what the hell was that supposed to mean!" Inuyasha shouted.

Kagome latched on his arm. "Calm down, Inuyasha." Wouldn't want to get kicked out of a fancy-ass restaurant when you got a 20 percent discount coupon, now would you?

The Itachio-look-alike stood up straight, Sango noticed that the Itachio she knew was shorter than he was. He smiled. "It would be queer wouldn't it if I said beautiful gentlemen, wouldn't it?" Seeing Inuyasha pissed off must have been amusing since his smile read, "Ha! You're such an ass!"

He must have noticed the look of shock and recognition on Sango's features because he gave his Prince Charming smile and took a hand in his (A/N: This guy has a thing for smiling.) "Can I help you, miss?"

Sango was shocked. This guy…t-this guy was…Her first instinct was to slap him, well, that was what she normally did to Miroku, but…Miroku... She shook her head mentally. Maybe a punch? Wait, that was what she did when she right-hooked Itachio. So what should she do? The first thing she did was draw her hand back quickly. "Don't touch me!" She hissed. "I didn't just forget what happened at the park last week, so don't assume that I have forgiven you."

Inuyasha and Kagome look at each other confused while Shippo's eyebrows were written with worry. Did something go wrong on her blind date last week?

"What do you think Sango's talking about?" Kagome whispered.

"How the hell am I supposed to know? But she looks like she knows this bastard." Inuyasha said, loud enough for the waiter to hear.

"Shh!"

He didn't seem to hear, either that or he was plain ignoring Inuyasha's bad-ass idioticness. He threw on a confused and slightly hurt expression, when you're a Prince Charming that has girls flocking to you and a certain lady pushed you away, you'd feel that way. "I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about. Have we met?"

Sango was beyond surprise, it was 102 percent shock. Why was he pretending that he didn't know her? Sango knew what Itachio looked like and they had spent a date together, if you count that as an actual date, but then Sango realized that there was something else different about this guy from Itachio other than the height difference. Up close, you notice that his eyes are gray, not like Itachio's silver, (A/N: Wow, huge difference. Sango musta taken some time remembering Itachio's eyecolor. Sango: I do not!) not to mention that his hair was a little longer nearly his shoulder, but combed in a more elegant style. He had it partly gelled back with a few bangs hanging over his eyes creating the to-die-for-so-handsomely-sexy-Prince-Charming look. The most noticeable thing was his…NAMETAG: Hiroshima Jaamaru

While Sango was ogling at the stranger, Kagome cleared her throat as if to tell the waiter that the rest of the world existed. "Excuse me?"

Itachio-look-alike turned his attention back to Kagome. "Yes, can I help you?"

"Hey, asshole, quick doddling and get us a table for four. ." Inuyasha growled, still ticked off at being called a "not-so-beautiful germ". Not saying that he was beautiful or anything, but whenever he looks in his mirror, Inuyasha finds that he's rather decent looking.

"Ah, yes. Of course." He gave a sparkling smile to Kagome, who blushed, which caused Inuyasha to send a ray of jealous rays and was about to jump the waiter for stealing his girl. However, Kagome was still latched to his arm, and when Hiroshima was leading them to their tables, Kagome followed, dragging Inuyasha with her.

Sango stood where she was. Wait, that nametag said he was Hiroshima Jaamaru. It could mean that he and Itachio are from the same family, but they looked exactly alike aside from the minor differences. Shippo noticed his older friend's lost-in-thoughtness and tugged her shirt sleeve. "Sango, are you okay?"

No answer.

Shippo sighed worriedly before asking quietly, "What happened on your blind date, Sango?"

Sango hesitated whether or not to tell him about the incident. After all, he was still a child, he wouldn't understand her feelings about Miroku. Sure he knows that they were in love, but it runs deeper than that. (A/N: Not saying that they did it or anything.) Itachio had called Miroku and old lover, but there never was any other man but Miroku! Forcing a smile, I mean really forcing, Sango walked towards the table. "Nothing happened."

Shippo followed her, not convinced at all. After all with that show he just witnessed, there had to be something more. And he wasn't as naïve as they made him out to be.

Hiroshima had brought them to a nice table at a window facing the lovely lawn. You could almost see his Prince Charmingness sparkling around him. Inuyasha cracked his knuckles. "Who does that fucken bastard think he is?"

"Calm down, Inuyasha!" Kagome said with a hint of irritation in her voice. Why does he always get so…so…jerk-like whenever some other guy says something to make her blush?

Hiroshima pulled out a chair and smiled. "Please take a seat, my lady."

"Why, thank you." Kagome said, taking a seat. (A/N: No, she ain't sluttingly flirting, Inuyasha. She's just being polite, something that you can't be with in the same sentence.)

"What!" Inuyasha was shocked at the way that that slimy, slicked-haired bastard was specially treating Kagome.

Shippo, who had forgotten his worryness for a moment, was at awe. "Wow, my lady. This restaurant must really be fancy."

"No, it's more like rubbing fanciness on the noses of pretty girls." Sango said rather coldly pulling out a chair herself next to Shippo.

The Prince Charming waiter's smile evaporated slightly when Sango ignored his offer for his her to take a seat in a chair he had pulled out. However, that didn't stop his flirtatious manner. Bending over slightly next to Sango, he asked softly, "Well, dear lady, anything to drink?"

Sango ignored him with a huff and turned to face Shippo.

Kagome, still captivated in OMG-he's-so-charming, replied. "I'll take a Coke." rather dreamily.

"Coke." Inuyasha said gruffly, leaning back in his chair with his feet crossed on the table.

"Orange juice!"

Hiroshima nodded and scribbled it on a check book. "And you?"

Sango, still not looking at him, replied rather blandly, "Water."

"I'll leave you to take a look at the menu for a moment while I fetch your drinks." Hiroshima said with a charming smile before weaving his way around the clusters of other tables.(A/N: This guy uses the word "charming" way too much to describe himself…)

No sooner did he leave when another voice reached the group's ears. "Well, well, I certainly didn't expect you to be here, Inuyasha. One would think you could barely afford McDonalds." A cold voice reached their ears.

Inuyasha fell backwards from his chair and when he got back up, he saw the last person he wanted to see in the world. "Sesshomaru." His golden eyes seething with, "I fucken hate you, you ass-headed bastard!"

But, the older Taiyoukai wasn't alone, with him was a cheerful little girl with black hair that had to be around eight or ten years old, Sesshomaru's bastardly butler Jaken ("Little slime-toed bastard…"-Kikyo), and a woman that looked around Kikyo's age with raven-black hair and piercing blood red/pink eyes. (A/N: In my opinion it looks pink. Does it look pink to _you_?)

"Ah, Inuyasha…" Kagome (about time she snapped outta it) said softly, not wanting him to start a fight with Sesshomaru in a fancy restaurant filled with people.

Too late, he exploded. "What the hell was that supposed to mean! And why the hell are _you_ here anyways? Out on a date with your new girlfriend?" He said, indicating the woman with the red eyes with a jerk of his head in her direction.

"I'll have you know that Master Sesshomaru is her to discuss important matters with his associate, if it's any of your business which it's not!" Jaken said, glaring up at Inuyasha.

"Keh!" Inuyasha replied.

Sango, Kagome, and Shippo stayed quiet watching the argument. As far as they were concerned, Inuyasha won't think twice to start a fight with Sesshomaru here. However, as of late, the two brother's relationship has gotten mildly better. Meaning instead of fighting each other when they meet, they attack each other with insults.

While the two glared at each other for a minute, Sesshomaru's waiter, a spikey-haired blond with golden eyes like Inuyasha rolled his eyes and tapped his foot audibly.

"How long are we going to stand here, I'm in a hurry." The raven-haired woman said, impatiently.

"What I was going to say." The blond man said. His nametag read: Hiroshi. "If I may, sir, lead you to your private room?" You could tell he was saying this with forced politeness. Hey, anything for a big tip.

After glaring at Inuyasha without blinking as much as a normal human would, Sesshomaru walked towards a separate room. "Let's go, Jaken."

"Yes, sir!" The short man stated and marched after him, the red-eyed woman rolled her eyes and followed.

"Bye-bye!" The little girl waved and followed after Hiroshi, who was staring at Kagura's chest unnecessarily.

Inuyasha was still seething in his seat by the time Hiroshima came back with their drinks. "Something the matter, sir?"

Seeing as Inuyasha was ignoring everybody, Kagome quickly shook her head. "No, nothings wrong!" She said, laughing nervously. "Eh…we'd like to order now."

"Ah, yes." After setting the drinks down in front of their respective owners, Hiroshima pulled out his check book.

"I'm going to the bathroom." Sango said promptly, getting up.

"Eh, miss, what about your…" Hiroshima broke off.

Kagome smiled, looked like Sango needed some time alone. "She'll take whatever your salad special is today."

While the others were ordering, Shippo can't help but think that he was definitely right about Sango's blind date going down to hell. The youngster hopped out of his chair and ran after Sango, nearly tripping a black-haired girl who was carrying a stack of dirty dishes. "I need to go too!"

In truth, Sango had no idea where the bathroom was. All she saw was tables, tables, and a few doors leading to the kitchen. She spotted what looked like the blond waiter from before and tapped his shoulder.

The person turned around, but he was someone else, his eyes were sparkling blue and now that Sango looked at him, he was a bit shorter and younger too. What is it with this restaurant and people looking the same! "Yeah, can I help you?"

"I'm looking for the restroom." Sango said.

"Oh, over there next to that ugly painting of that stupid ship. See?" The teen pointed out the painting.

Muttering a quick thank-you, Sango turned to leave when she heard a voice. "Sango, wait!"

Shippo bounded up to her. "I'm coming with you too!"

Next to the stupid painting the teen had showed her was a doorway leading down a dim hall and at the end of the hall was a sign that said: Customer Restrooms. Definitely more classier than Flarenii's restaurant. Great, why was she thinking of that now?

Near the end of the hall, Sango froze and Shippo bumped right into her. "Ouch! Why'd you stop, Sango?"

She heard voices, and they sounded like they were getting nearer. What was worse was that it sounded like two Itachio's conversing. Sango couldn't find herself to walk and instead listened.

"…and so she looked livid."

"…"

"Why the face? She's bound to still be mad. I mean, after all, she did right-hook you in the face, didn't she?" The first voice laughed.

"She just slapped me, okay."

"That's not what Flarenii told me."

" Yeah, well, she just sprouts shit."

"Hmm…I don't think so. Maybe she-"

Hiroshima stopped talking when his brother froze and stared in front of him. He turned and saw Sango's and Shippo's surprised faces, while they saw two Itachios, one taller than the other, in front of them.

This Itachio was definitely the asshole that she had right-hooked a week ago.

"You know him/her?" Hiroshima and Shippo asked at the same time.

"Yes/No." Itachio and Sango answered.

After a few moments of silence, Sango walked between both men roughly and headed to the ladies room.

The three stared at each other in silence until disaster struck. The front doors were kicked open and the tye-dye wonder, Flarenii hollered at the top of her lungs, "ITACHIO! I KNOW WHERE THAT CHICK WORKS AT!"

"You had Flarenii stalking her?"

"No…"

"Don't lie."

"Yes."

"You two are idiots."

"We know."

**End Chapter Six

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**

So, how was this chapter you guys? Sorry, it took longer to update than the other chapters, I was suffering a minor writer's block. Well, anyway, review! (Flames welcome.)


	7. Chapter 7: Cupidina Schemes

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Inuyasha, but I own all the friggin' OOCs that are going to be in this fic.**

Once again, I'd like to thank all the people that have been reviewing my chapters! I feel all giddy inside!

**KiT: You're learning Japanese! I wanted to go for that class, but somehow my mom managed to convince me to take Spanish 'cuz in my place, a lot more people speak Spanish than Japanese! (I hate my Spanish teacher by the way. She's a total bitch. So glad school's out!)**

**Graciously Taken: Yay! Someone who's looking forward to another chapter!**

**crimson whispers: O.O I'm seriously going to check into whether I had a twin or not. But thanks for reviewing anyway!**

(looks around) Hmmmm…It's quiet around here. Too quiet…Where the hell is everybody! All the other times, they're here to annoy the hell outta me. Where're they when you actually need them!

(sees note on ground and picks it up) _Dear Psycho Spaghetti, seeing as how Psyche and I have been with you through thick and thin working on this fic, we've decided to award ourselves a little vacation. Don't worry, you won't find us anywhere, and don't bother finding us. We'll be back in a year or so._

_Until then, enjoy your life of peace while it lasts,_

_Big Q_

_P.S.-If you are reading this letter now, you have three seconds to get away before this letter explodes._

3…2…1…

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!**

Ugh…

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**Chapter 7: Cupidina Schemes**

"What are you still doing here. Haven't you ruined my life enough already." Itachio's monotone voice filled the empty, fancy restaurant, Dark Horizon, as he dusted up a few crumbs from under a table. It was 6 P.M., the time when Dark Horizon closes. Most of the workers that have closing duties are hanging around, not really feeling up to cleaning.

A young girl around twelve sat on a chair backwards not far away, resting her chin on the top of the chair. "Well, we need to talk about…What's her name again?"

Itachio bent over and picked up a shiny, silver fork that somebody had missed earlier and tossed it into a tray of other utensils set on another table not far away. "If I told you once, I told you a hundred times. Sango."

Flarenii raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to at least wash it before someone uses it?"

With a low grunt, Itachio bent down to scrape off gum that the idiotic kids stuck under the tables. The owner of Dark Horizon clearly despises uncleanliness, so every night during closing duties, a couple of people had the honor to get on their asses and break their backs trying to scrape of the stubborn little pieces of shit. "It's not like anybody's going to know."

"I heard that, Jaamaru!" A black haired girl said, throwing the towel she had over her shoulder, where it landed perfectly on another pile of dirty towels. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at Itachio with dark eyes. "You march your ass into the kitchen and tell Jak to wash that fucken little piece of shit."

"You go girl, Hirunashi!" Flarenii said, grinning for ear to ear. Ever since Itachio first took her here to meet his friends, she found someone else out there in the cold world that liked to cuss and boss Itachio around.

Hirunashi smirked when Itachio grumbled and picked up the fork and walked into the kitchen. She looked up at the stairs when someone thundered down them. And that someone was excited about something.

Flarenii looked up from the chair she was slouching on. "What's got you so high, Hiroshi?"

The excited blonde skipped over the last five steps and zoomed up to the two black-haired, foul-mouthed girls and pulled at a green fifty dollar bill.

"Don't tell me, you stole that. A-mazing." Hirunashi's voice was layered thick with sarcasm.

Hiroshi's grin slid off like butter and was replaced by a false hurt expression. "Now, now, dear Hirunashi, why would I do that?" His childish features pouting.

"Because for one thing, you were a highschool, punk-ass pickpocket." Hirunashi said, pulling two bottles of beer from out of nowhere. "Here." She tossed one to her drinking buddy.

Hiroshi popped the top and drank like no tomorrow. "I hate it when you can't drink in front of the customers." He released a rather eye-flinching belch.

"So are you going to tell us how you got it or what?" Flarenii snapped, eyeing the bottle of booze in his hands. Beer…beer…beer…

Hiroshi shook a finger in front of her. "Now, now patience. Just a couple of years and you can drink with us. If you're tough enough to handle it like a 'real' man." After his strange little statement, Hiroshi threw back his head and let out a loud laughter.

Flarenii's eyes did a little twitch. Nothing more…

Hiroshi clutched his stomache and started hopping from foot to foot. "Oh…my…GAWD! I…can't…breathe!"

Flarenii's hand tightens into a fist.

Now the blonde wonder is rolling on the floor, pounding the ground and still laughing loudly. His loud laughter echoing in the near-empty building.

WHAM!

Hirunashi's eyes opened in surprise when she saw Flarenii jam her fist into Hiroshi's face. _Ouch, that's gotta hurt._ That pretty much shutted him up.

Flarenii stood up with a seething glare on her Asian features, punching her fist into her other palm. Her brown eyes narrowed, creating a frightening image. Oh, no! It's the attack of the hideous, Bambi-eyed (A/N: That's what my cousin says about my huge eyes. Bambi…keh! I'll show you Bambi!), tinsel-teethed (A/N: And this is what my oh-so-lovable cousin says about my braces. Gawd, can't wait to just kick his ass when no one's looking.), flat-chested he-she! "Never…" Her voice clearly showed how pissed she was. "…ever let me hear you say that…AGAIN." She sat herself roughly back down, which she regretted instantly as she flinched. "Ow, fuck, my ass…" She muttered.

Itachio walked back into the room from the kitchen and looked down at the dazed Hiroshi on the floor. He raised his eyebrows at Hirunashi, who just shrugged and pointed at the little Chinese girl. You could practically see the piss rays coming out of Flarenii's back.

Just then, the other door leading to the kitchens opened to reveal a charming looking man. His pearly-white teeth sparkled when he smiled at the four people seated around a table. "Well, seems jolly-good time to be closing and go home, isn't it?" Even in the horrible hours of closing duty, his Prince Charming sparkleness never ceases to shine through.

Hirunashi looked towards him dryly. "Ya know, Hiroshima, you could just drop the Charming act. It's getting kinda annoying, and we all know that it's only for the tips from the ladies."

Hiroshima threw on an expression of the utmost hurt. "Oh how you hurt me, dear Hirunashi. This is just the way I am."

Itachio rolled his eyes at his brother's antics. Somehow, denying that they weren't related still didn't help things out. "I'm leaving." He loosens his bow tie while walking across the room, the damn little shit was choking him anyway.

Flarenii followed him. "About time. I felt like I went through five birthdays by the time you came out."

"Hey!" Hirunashi's call turned Itachio around. "Jak needs a ride home. Don't wanna get Angela mad. We all know how protective of her little baby boy." She crooned out the last part.

Jak, who had just came out of the kitchens with a half annoyed, half embarrassed look on his face, walked over to the little group. "Quit treating me like a baby or something. I'm turning fifteen in a few months."

"You so sure about that?" Hiroshima said, mockingly.

Jak grumbled under his breath, and decided to ignore Hiroshima for the time being. "Besides, I'm not going to sit in the same car as _her_." He jerked his head towards Flarenii.

The twelve-year-old was unfazed. She glared back. "Got a problem with being three feet near me?"

"Hell, yeah!" Jak yelled.

Hiroshima laughed again, and patted Jak on the head. "Don't worry about getting stuck in the same car with that feisty little monkey, I'll drive you home. I don't want your mother chasing after me with a chain saw until the crack of doom." He waved a goodbye at his brother and Hirunashi before walking outside towards his Porsche.

Hirunashi had responded with a curt nod, whereas Itachio completely ignored his brother, and instead motioned to Flarenii that they were leaving. Hirunashi was going to stay and close up when Hiroshi finally gets into his right mind.

There was a heavy fog of silence in the Silverado as Itachio drove out of the parking lot. He finally broke the silence when he stopped the truck in front of a red light. "Does your parents know that you were here the whole afternoon."

Flarenii shrugged. The usual answers from the girl.

Itachio sighed and stepped on the gas pedal when the lights burned green. "Why did you come anyways. She just…left."

Flarenii gave her older friend a side-long glance before her eyes stared straight ahead. "Why are you concerning yourself with her anyway? It was supposed to be a fucken blind date. I know that you're not just paying me to find out whether or not she has forgiven you." Her features were now somewhat less childish and more wiser.

Itachio kept his eyes on the road. Great, she was using semi-big words. That usually means she's attempting to play God. Ever since he had first met her, the girl had moments where her seriousness is unlike any other, and her voice held a strange level of command in them. It was her way of complete control.

"I don't know." Itachio answered truthfully. Why was he thinking so much of Sango anyway…Maybe, it's love at first sight. No…wait, love at second sight. Fuck! It didn't really matter. He hadn't realized that until after he had angered her that he cared about her feelings of anger towards him.

Flarenii glanced at Itachio again, a faint smile forming at her lips. Maybe…just maybe, she could pry into Itachio's mind to see if Sango was of any significance to him. She'll try to see the same in Sango. If there was something in between, then that was a couple already made. Another few points of success in her career as a match-maker.

Just when Itachio was about to make a turn, Flarenii tapped his arm. "Go straight. I'm seeing someone at Chuck E. Cheeses."

Itachio threw his friend a surprised look when he continued driving straight. "Seeing someone. Forgot tonight's a school night, what about your parents."

Shrug again. "My parents work late, you know that. Just shut the fuck up and get me to that fat-ass rat's place." Great, now she's back to that same annoying little brat that we know and love. "Always hated that ugly rat's face." Flarenii muttered darkly as Itachio's Silverado pulled to a stop.

As soon as they walked in, Flarenii craned her neck to look around. Itachio looked at her strangely as the person stamped their hands, and followed her to a table far away from the noises of the games and kids having fun.

Flarenii scooted into a booth and Itachio followed suit. It wasn't until after he sat in did he see who it was: a short, little youngster wearing a hat too large for him and a pair of shades. Obviously, the orange-headed youngster had tried to make himself less conspicuous, but it only made him more suspicious looking.

He quickly looked around and spoke in a harsh whisper. "Were you followed?"

"Um…no." Itachio said uncertainly. Okay, now this was fucken weird.

This seemed to cheer the youngster up as he pulled off the hat and tossed it aside. Flarenii snorted. "Just get to the point, punk. I ain't risking my allowance just to see a little ass like you on a school night."

Ah, so she did cared about what she did on school nights, Itachio mused.

"I have a name, and it's Shippo!" Huge, innocent-looking emerald eyes looked back as sternly as possible.

"Oh, I'm quivering in my bra." Flarenii said sarcastically. "What do you want, _Shippo_?"

Itachio looked at his friend in surprise. This was just too rich to pass. "I didn't know you used a bra. Don't tell me you have something underneath tha-"

WHAM!

"You were saying?" Flarenii said as if nothing happened, leaving Itachio to nursed his bruised cheek. Great last time it was the left side of his face, now it was the right side. Women just can't keep their fists away from his face, can they?

The youngster, Shippo, looked back at the pair with narrowed, business-like eyes, a look Flarenii was familiar with. Shippo coughed a few times into his fist before clearing his throat. Silence… "I want to know what happened at Sango's blind date last week."

This caught Itachio off guard. His face grimaced, this wasn't something that he wanted to take about. Can there be anything else more embarrassing to a guy other than retelling a story in which he got a girl so pissed off that she right-hooked him and got away with it? I don't think so. Itachio looked to his right, hoping that Flarenii would talk for him.

His hopes dropped when Flarenii didn't say anything. She just continued to stare back at Shippo. Maybe, she was expecting him to talk. This was just like her: let him tell the twerp and snicker on the side. Fine. Just as Itachio opened his mouth to speak, Flarenii interrupted him. "Why? It's not like it's any of your damn business, kid."

Shippo frowned at being called "kid". Well, he'll let them slide this time. "I'll make it my business. Sango's one of my best friends. If she's gotten more depressed than I want to know what happened." The young boy stated with a firm voice. Sango was the strong one back then with Miroku. But now…it's like she's broken.

Conflict broke out in Itachio's head. He knew that she was pissed at him for calling her boyfriend an "old lover." But depressed? That's a new one. Wait. Boyfriend…WTF? If she already had a boyfriend than why did she go on that blind date? Maybe Flarenii conned or blackmailed her. Wait, wouldn't her boyfriend be with her or something? This is too damn confusing!

Flarenii's voice was layered with sarcasm. "How touching. But that still doesn't give me any reason to talk."

Shippo sighed. "I didn't want to do it this way, but…" Shippo reached under the table and pulled out a fresh green twenty dollar bill and placed it between Flarenii and him.

Itachio could tell that Flarenii was willing to talk by the way she was drooling over the money. Her eyes were wide open with $v$. Itachio sighed, goodbye male pride and hello embarrassment. However, neither of those things happened because in the next second, Flarenii was looking at him with a look of deep concentration. Itachio gave in, who cares? He got right-hooked by a girl, I'm sure plenty of guys that that same treatment when they piss of their girlfriends during that time of the month.

Moola…or respect of a friend's pride…moola…or respect of a friend's pride…

Flarenii groaned and pulled on the bangs that protruded under the brim of her beanie. "I can't take this anymore!" The young girl shrieked, causing Shippo to jump. "Let's go, we need to talk!" Flarenii literally kicked Itachio out of the booth and pulled him towards the bathroom. After stopping a little too close outside of the women's restroom, Flarenii rubbed her temples. Itachio had no idea how much pride-swallowing his friend was going through. Usually Flarenii went ahead and demanded everything, but now… "Is it all right with you for me to tell twerpy there about last week's little mishap with Sandy?"

Itachio was utterly surprised. Here she was, Flarenii, asking him if it's all right for her to do something. That was something new. "Her name's Sango, not Sandy." Was the first thing that Itachio said.

"Who gives a shit! Hurry up and just tell me before I go over there and tell that little fucker my version of the story!" Flarenii hollered, causing several women exiting the restroom to look in their direction. Clearly, they thought of the pair standing outside the women's restroom strange, and moved away quickly.

"Why're you asking me." Itachio asked.

Flarenii gave a huge sigh and grabbed Itachio's shirt and started dragging him back to the boothe. "Come one, ding dong."

While the two were away, Shippo did some thinking of his own. _Sango was definitely more depressed than usual today…

* * *

_

_After Sango left, the three males looked at each other. Itachio wasn't all that surprised that his neighbor was still hell pissed at him. All the other days after the blind date, Sango seemed to never be around when he knocked on her door to apologize if he had hurt her feelings. Damn right he hurt her feelings. Flarenii had come over a few times, but most of the time she just came to insult him and tell him what a "fucken jack-assed S.O.B." he was. All the while, Itachio came to the conclusion that maybe that Miroku fellow was her boyfriend, seeing as how she had shouted she still loved him._

_The silence was broken when Flarenii ran into the hall and looked at them. She raised an eyebrow and asked, "You…guys aren't going gay are you?" Her tone completely contradicted what was written on her sweat shirt._

"_Sorry, I find females plenty more attractive." Hiroshima replied, giving Flarenii a grin._

"_Who the fuck are you?" Flarenii asked, looking down at Shippo who was standing between the two men and her._

"_Now, now, you shouldn't set a bad example and swear in front of little kids." Hiroshima said in a scolding tone._

_Flarenii rolled her eyes, but Itachio asked her, "So, where does she work at."_

"_Woah, woah, woah…Hang on a minute!" Shippo said, looking back and forth at Itachio and Flarenii. "You-" he pointed at Itachio- "had her-" he pointed at Flarenii-"dig out information on my friend Sango? What for? What do you guys want from her?" _

"_Well…" Flarenii began._

_Then something clicked in Shippo's mind. "Wait. You're that girl that set up the blind date for Sango!"_

"_No shit, Sherlock." _

_Shippo ignored her comment and looked up at Itachio. "Then you're the guy that was Sango's blind date! What happened? Ever since her date, Sango's been acting strange."_

_Itachio stayed silent, debating whether or not to tell the child who claimed to be Sango's friend what seemed to be bothering her. Hiroshima broke the silence when a girl with long black hair peered into the little hall and yelled. "Jaamarus, get your asses outside, we got work. You guys can talk to your little friends later!"_

"_Oh, look at that. We have to go, see you children later." Hiroshima said, while steering his brother out of the hall._

_And that left the two kids by themselves. Flarenii looked after the two Jaamaru's with a hard to read expression._

_Shippo tugged at Flarenii's shirt and looked up at her with determination in his eyes. "I want to know what happened last week."_

_Flarenii scowled and held up her side bag and shook it in Shippo's face. "Look here, little brat, us middle-schoolers have a thing called plenty-of-crappy-homework to do after school. I don't have time to tell some little story to a little pre-schooler like you."_

_Shippo glared at her. "I may look small, but I'm in fifth grade!" After a minute of glaring at each other, Shippo came up with a resolve. "Then tell me at Chuck E. Cheeses at 6: 30 sharp!"_

_Flarenii looked at him with blank brown eyes before sighing. "Fine, but it better be quick."_

Shippo's thoughts were interrupted when Flarenii and Itachio came back. Flarenii grabbed the twenty-dollar bill from the counter and belched. "Money satisfies my like no other." She grinned over at Shippo. "Let's see, where to begin…"

* * *

Shippo looked from Itachio to Flarenii and back. Suddenly his face shone with admiration for Sango. "I knew Sango was strong enough to beat anybody!" That left Itachio to sulk in his little humility pool.

Flarenii was laughing so hard that tears were coming out of her eyes. "And the left side of his face was like, mongo until the next day!"

"So, who's Miroku." Itachio asked over the two kids' laughter.

Shippo instantly stopped and his face was overwhelmed with a sad expression. Flarenii still had a grin on her face, but that grin was short lived. "Miroku…he…he was one of my best friend too. He and Sango were going out…" That confirmed it, Itachio thought. Miroku was her boyfriend. Itachio could her the scratching of pen on paper, and he knew that Flarenii was scanning down everything in that Goddamn notebook of hers. "But…Miroku gave his life like all the other people on 9/11…"

Everything seemed to have stopped at Shippo's last words. Flarenii dropped her pen, as her eyes widened to a size that Bambi would have been envious of. Itachio was shocked. Sango…was strangely monotone because…of the tremendous shock of losing someone you loved so much…just like that. _So much like me…_

Flarenii turned slowly to look at her friend. Shippo was quiet now, thinking of a dead friend dampens one's mood. But just then, something hit her. If Sango's boyfriend is dead, than she's free to hook with. But…the only question is whether or not she can be hooked again. Losing Miroku caused her depression, but she almost decided to move on when I made her go on a blind date with ape head next to me, but he screwed up big time. However, it seems that my lame-brained friend might have a thing going for Sango, I can't be sure if I don't find out whether he's jealous or not when I pair her up with someone else…Oh, I'm so smart…Heh heh heh heh heh heh…

Flarenii coughed and stood up. "Thanks for telling me that, kiddo. Itachio's going to take us home."

Itachio didn't say anything while dropping off Shippo and Flarenii. As soon as she opened the front door, our foul-mouthed girl checked to see whether or not her parents were home. Laramie was on the computer as usual, and her brother was entranced with the PlayStation2. Flarenii sneaked up into her room and watched as Itachio's Silverado drove off.The young girl'seyes almost seemed to glow in her dark room.

_So Sango…let's see whether or not you can charm our boy…_

**End Chapter 7

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**

Uh oh…What does Flarenii have planned out? Oh, yeah, sorry about taking about a week to update 'cuz I usually update in a few days. I kinda had writer's block, but that went away. (claps) Yay! Please review! (Flames welcome.)


	8. Chapter 8: Lend A Hand, Bro

Okay, okay, I'm really sorry for the uber long update 'cuz I usually update in a few days to maybe a week or two, but this time I crossed the line. I had minor writer's block, and I had been kinda busy with school and helping out at my parents' restaurant. And now I'm making excuses. So, without further ado, enjoy this late update.

Oh yeah, I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, I would be doing my own laundry.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Lend a Hand, Bro**

"Okay, explain to me why we're doing this again?" the silver-headed Prince Charming asked, looking across the table at a clearly annoyed young girl. The two were seated outside of a Starbucks on a mellow September Friday afternoon. Few people walked the streets as the sky turned orange, preparing for a sunset.

Flarenii sighed heavily and leaned on her arm. This was the last time she was asking any favors from the bastard. "Look, it's just a little test. I mean, I don't see the friggin' problem. You sleep with a different woman each month! And I still don't know how you haven't caught HIV yet…" she added quietly.

Hiroshima hesitated. "Well…the girl is a little…" He struggled to look for the right word, "A little…bland."

"Ah, the great Prince Charming does have picks." Flarenii replied sarcastically before putting her hands together in front of Hiroshima, and bowed her head. "Come on, give her a shot! Don't you want to see the look on Lame-ass's face when he sees you going out with his ex-blind date!"

"Nnnn…That does sound tempting, but…if I'm right, she's still mourning the lost of her dead boyfriend." Hiroshima said.

"How'd you find out about that?" Flarenii asked, sitting back up. Itachio usually tries to ignore his older brother's existence, but he told Hiroshima about Sango and her ex-boyfriend buried six feet underneath Twin Tower crap? Maybe Sango's drawing the two brothers together…Nah, why the hell would she do that? She's still busy hating Lame-ass and crying over her boyfriend.

Hiroshima shrugged. "Baby brother finally decided to do some bonding with me."

"Right…" Flarenii muttered, leaning back to look up at the orange/red sky. _Hmm…_ "So, will you help me or not, pretty boy?"

Hiroshima grinned at the nickname. (He likes being called names like that…) He couldn't say no to a girl, since he was such a charming nice guy. But, he wouldn't so yes either because he liked his good looks so when Itachio finds out…

Inside Hiroshima's head…

Sex-Maniac Hiroshima: I'm totally up for the girl!

Goody-Two-Shoes Hiroshima: No, the girl is younger than you and she is already courting your younger brother. As an older brother, you must set a good example.

Sex-Maniac Hiroshima: Ah, who gives a fuck! I say, let's go fuck the girl!

Goody-Two-Shoes Hiroshima: Oh how horrible!

Back to Reality…

Hiroshima tapped his chin and looked up at the sky. What should I do? What should I do… Hiroshima smiled.

Flarenii sat up and looked straight at him. "Sooooo…you'll do it?

* * *

_/Ring Tone/_

"Grrdamit…Stupid, stuck-up bastard…" A Young Chinese girl muttered fiercely underneath her breath as she searched her pocket for her cell phone. Good thing that the teacher currently had her back to the girl, busy teaching the class. Flarenii sneaked a look to her left and her right, nobody seemed to give a shit that her cell phone just went off. _Sigh_. Good. Propping her literature book up in front of her like a wall, Flarenii lowered her head behind the book and opened her phone. "Thisss better be good, Shima. I'm in the middle of my fucken class!" She hissed out through gritted teeth.

From his cell phone outside Feudal Village Apartments, Hiroshima smiled, his white teeth never losing its brightness. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were in the middle of something."

Flarenii smacked the palm of her hand to her forehead and muttered a few lines of extremely colorful words. The girl took a deep breath and letted it out slowly. "Woooooooosssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……….."

The teacher seemed to have heard her and turned around. "Is everything all right?" Practically the whole class turned their bored gazes towards the Chinese girl.

"Eh heh heh heh…No, no, no, I'm good." After most of the people looked away Flarenii shoved her cell phone in her ear.

"What was that about?"

The pencil in her hand snapped cleanly in two. "Shut the fucken hell up, and get the fuck on with it, Goddamit!"

"Oh, feisty aren't we?"

"You just love pushing my buttons don't you! Anyway, why the hell did you call? Wait, wait, don't tell me: you wet your pants." Flarenii said, sarcastically, throwing her broken pencil over the side of her desk. This was so fucken frustrating! That bastard can really get on anybody's nerves, Goddamit. I swear, even the Devil would beg God to take him away.

"Back on track, I'm outside her place. What am supposed to do, knock on her door? What if my baby brother sees me?"

"Do I have to hold your hand through dating a depressed girl?" Flarenii asked, her attention captivated by a little ant marching across her desk. March, march, march, march….Ants…what dumbasses…At least they don't give up…

"Hm?"

Flarenii sighed, her breath sounding raspy on the other phone. "Nevermind. Anyway, it'll be good if Itachio sees you, then we'll find out if he's jealous or not. And yes, you knock. What? You five or something?"

Hiroshima raised an eyebrow, confused. "Jealous? You know, Flarenii, you still haven't explained to me your plan yet."

"No, I haven't. I won't tell anybody anything, because if I do, you'll just screw up. So just follow along." Flarenii said. Oh, the ant's crawling up the side of her book. It can go vertical, cool.

Hiroshima stepped out of his just-washed car and slammed the door shut. The Prince Charming smiled casually to two girls walking pass. The usual reaction: blush, giggle, hurry away, and sneak looks back at him. This is just too easy. Wonder why I'm not married yet. Oh, yeah, I like to pound a different girl every other while. The Prince smiled to himself, and before he knew it he was right in front of door number 07. After digging in his pocket for a few moments, he pulled out a scrap of paper with the number "7" scrawled on it. "Looks like this is the place."

_Knock. Knock._

_Splash!_

Sango stood shivering and gasping in front of her bathroom mirror. It was just a dream…-good. Slowly, she raised her dripping, wet right hand and placed it against the surface of the mirror, it felt cool to the skin. Brown eyes gazed into brown. It's strange, looking at her own reflection…made her sad. It was as if her reflection was reminding her of her old self. The one that was happy. The one that was strong. Not like her now. She's weak, and oh what the hell.

Grabbing a towel from the side, Sango wiped her face dry only to hear somebody knocking on her door. Knocking on her door…Great, Sango groaned inwardly, I bet it's Itachio again.

Why was she still mad at him anyways? Sango stood still, holding the towel to her face. For some reason, just thinking about him makes her so frustrated! Who does he and that little brat think they are? Just prancing in and forcing her into a stupid date… With a loud sigh, Sango dropped the towel on the floor and looked up at her ceiling. Maybe she should apologize for the way she's been acting. After all, he had been coming numerous times to apologize.

"Maybe she's not home…" Hiroshima spoke into his cell phone. Yep, they're still talking. He turned around and glanced at his brother's door. Wonder if he's up yet.

Flarenii sat back and slumped in her desk. "Nah, trust me, she's there. I found out on Wednesday that she doesn't go to work on Friday morningsand the weekends." The Chinese girl's brown eyes followed the little ant up the book and down the book. What's it doing?

"All right, class, turn to page 66 for an example of a haiku…"

Flarenii was barely listening, but non-the-less she turned the page. "Just keep on trying. She'll open up some time soon. Or you can spend the night outside her door."

The knocking continued as Sango fed Kirara her food. Obviously, the visitor was bent on not leaving. With a sigh, Sango got up and opened the front door.

Hiroshima's eyes widened. Fuck, no wonder his brother was hooked on this girl. He looked her up and down, a red tank-top with one of its thin straps drooping a little too low , and pink pjs. This girl just got up…Heh heh heh heh heh heh…

Sango was surprised at first to see Hiroshima standing in front of her, but that quickly changed to irritation when she saw his grey eyes peering a good number of inches below her face. Hiroshima was pulled from his churning, perverted thoughts when Sango quickly pulled the loose strap back up her shoulder and snapped at him harshly. "What're you doing here? Come to irritate me like your bastard of a brother?" Even as she said this, Sango glared past Hiroshima's shoulder towards Itachio's door.

"Oh, harsh, man." Flarenii commented. Hiroshima had shoved his phone in his jacket pocket the minute Sango had opened her door, but the young match-maker could still hear everything.

Hiroshima smiled down gently at Sango, and she nearly lost it. For some reason, the way he smiled reminded her of the way that Miroku used to smile at her. It was like…the two brothers both have something that reminded her of _him_...

"No, I didn't come to irritate you, I'm sorry if you feel that way though. I heard from my brother about your…uh…deceased friend. I must apologize for his rudeness on the subject. I'm afraid he doesn't know any better."

"Woah…charming as always, aren't cha?" The ant stopped in the middle of her book page and it seemed to be sniffing at something with its antennas.

Sango continued glaring at him before crossing her arms in front of her. "Well, what do you want?"

Hiroshima chuckled and leaned on her door post, bringing his face mere inches before hers and smiled. "I heard from a little feisty birdie that you don't go to work on Friday mornings. How 'bout you hang around with me for the day? Sort of a date."

"Feisty birdie!" Flarenii hissed into the phone.

Sango looked past Hiroshima's shoulder again before her gaze dropped to her feet. The last time she had agreed to a date with another man in the years that she had spent depressed over the loss of Miroku, she got hurt again. "I guess all that's left for me in life is to be hurt…" Sango murmured softly to herself.

"I'm sorry?" Hiroshima asked, having not heard her.

"Nothing." Sango replied quickly. "Fine, I'll go with you. I needed some fresh air anyways." Sango turned around and closed the door.

After she went in to change into something more suitable for the outside, Hiroshima wheeled around and shouted, "Yes! I got 'er!"

"Nice to know." Flarenii muttered. "Looks like you're on your own, Shima." The girl snapped her cell phone shut and watched the ant marching in an eight figure across the page of her book before the bell rang and her teacher dismissed the class. The Chinese match-maker slammed her book shut and got up. After a few steps, Flarenii stopped and opened up her text book to the page the little ant was crawling on and stared at the creature. It was pathetic, half of its tiny body had been crushed by the weight of half the book, yet…it still tried to move with the remainder of its limbs. It was pathetic, but almost saddening to watch.

Carefully, Flarenii used the tip of her pen to scrape the ant off her book page and placed it on a nearby desk where it still continued its futile struggle. It was pointless, in maybe five minutes, the ant would be dead.

Flarenii continued to look at it, but the child finally turned and walked away. "People always suffer, but even after a tremendous loss, they still struggle greedily to cling onto life. Pathetic."

The girl walked out into the hall just as the bell for the next class rang.

_It's just pathetic…_

**End Chapter 8

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Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I forgot to mention earlier, but the updates are probably going to be up in a week and a half to two weeks. My schedules just tight between homework, helping out at my parents' restaurant and practicing three different instruments, and now I'm just making excuses AGAIN. I'm asking to please don't give up on the reviews because they get me going! So, thank you to all those who'll continue to read this story! Review! (Flames welcome.)


	9. Chapter 9: Getting To Know You

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but I own Dark Horizon, and all my OOC characters.**

When I was writing this chapter I wasn't really giving a cow's shit about correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation or editing so I might have done a crappy job. (shrugs) Oh well. Oh, and if you're wondering what happened to the other two, you should turn on the news. Big Q and Psyche are in court 'cuz investigators found out that those two were assisting Michael Jackson on this little "kid-molesting" spree. Check it out:

News Reporter: Right now, we are taking a break from the trial and standing behind me are the two girls that assisted Mr. Michael Jackson on his little-boy-molesting spree! (shoves microphone underneath Big Q's mouth) So, uh…little girl, tell the audience why you helped MJ with such a dastardly deed!

Big Q: (shifty eyes) I had nothing to do with it, and I won't talk.

News Reporter: But the people have a right to kno-

Psyche: (cuts in) I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! I WAS FRAMED, YA HEAR ME! (grabs news reporter's shirt and starts shaking him) FRAMED, I TELL YOU!

(turns off t.v. just as zookeepers start shooting tranquilizers at Psyche) Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhh…..so you see. Anyway, whether they're convicted or not, they'll still be back here in a few chapters. Damn!

**Thank you, KiT, for continuing to review my stories! You don't know how much it means to me! And thank you, sakuryn(sorry if I spelled it wrong, I'm such a retard…) for reviewing. I'm glad you found my story!**

**Mucho thankies to whoever else will review!**

Here's chapter nine!

* * *

**Chapter 9: Getting To Know You**

After waiting just about the better half of forever, Sango had finally finished dressing and opened the door to find Hiroshima nearly asleep sitting next to her door.

"So what do you think of the ice-cream?" Hiroshima's grey eyes penetrated into Sango's chocolate brown ones. Under Flarenii's plan, Hiroshima took Sango to an ice-cream shop for step one of "plan-gather-info." The only bad thing was that it was a helluva cold day, and well, eating ice-cream is like:

Stomach: (cough, cough) I've reached the end of my rope…

Intestines: No, Stomach, no! Oh, what will I ever do without you?

Yeah, you got the picture right?

Sango didn't say anything, and continued to eat the frozen delicacy slowly in little bites. The icyness bit into her tongue, all-the-more making the day more cold. She made sure she didn't look into Hiroshima's eyes. She couldn't explain the feeling at the back of her head, but for some uncanny reason, the way the elder Jaamaru looked at her was just like the way Miroku did. Both perverted and intense. Maybe she should take Hinduism and reincarnation seriously…

"I'll take that as a, "Yes, it's very good, thank you very much, Hiroshima." The Prince said to himself, tilting his head slightly to the right. If circumstances were different, Sango would have thought that little gesture incredibly cute. But that's that.

Flarenii stood in line for lunch and looked out the window, wondering why the dark, grey clouds were so oddly shaped.

It was odd, just the two of them sitting in his car, an air of silence so thick you could almost taste it. But…Sango glanced at Hiroshima out of the corner of her eye. Why did he have to be so damn…polite! He's acting way too much like _him_!

S-stop that…

…Why are you doing this to me?

Sango's eyes shook as her head slowly dipped, her hands shuddered as she looked at them. No, this wasn't right. What's going on?

Hiroshima turned his head slightly and abruptly stomped on the brakes. He reached across and placed a hand on Sango's shaking figure. "Sango! What's wrong?"

Sango trembled and she slowly turned her head to face him. After a moment, her shivering ceased, but her eyes still shook. _What is wrong with me?_ "W…what happened just now?"

Hiroshima sighed and looked back at her with his worry-filled grey eyes. "I don't know. Are you feeling all right?"

Sango nodded slowly, but Hiroshima wasn't quite convinced. Must be going through her period or something. Hiroshima got the car going soon, but Sango stared into her hands. What just happened now? When she looked into Hiroshima's eyes, for the fleetest second, she thought she saw Miroku looking back at her…

* * *

"Is that all you're going to eat?" Solphie asked, looking at her friend

"Nnnn…I'm not really hungry right now." Flarenii said, her tone bored as she stared out the window. _It's just too bad I couldn't place a bug or something on Shima. That way, I'll be able to hear every little thing that's going on. And THAT way, I'll hear the truth, not the fucking shit that he's going to make up._ With a heavy sigh, Flarenii got up and began to walk away slowly, not bothering to apologize when she bumped into the shoulder of another kid, spilling red soda on that kid's shirt.

Solphie raised an eyebrow. "What's a matter with her?"

* * *

Hiroshima and Sango walked side-by-side in through the many extraordinary stores of the great wonder known as "The Mall." They had stopped a couple of times to look at clothes, but for some reason, Sango wasn't as giddy about buying them as any other girl. Well, she's not like any other girl, she's in mental depression. Hiroshima reminded himself.

Hiroshima stopped walking and turned to Sango. "Can you wait here awhile? There's something I wish to purchase."

Sango saw him walk into a Walden's Bookstore where he greeted a young man who seemed to be the cashier. It seemed that the two knew each other because when the cashier pulled out a magazine, they snickered together at the contents.

Sango leaned back against the wall, ignoring all the sounds and the people walking past her. She shutted herself off and her mind wandered a bit. Why was she here again? How did she know these people?

_It's _your_ fault._

What? I didn't do anything. I can't help being so weak, Miroku's gone and what am I supposed to do now?

_Girl, it's been four years now. You need to move on. Your life never revolved around Miroku and it never will. You two were a great item, but that was the past, and this is the now. _

…How? You tell me to move on, but how do I move on? Do I simply forget the one I love and pretend that our relationship never existed!

_Sigh…You're really hard to work with. You can't forget him. Miroku was a part of your life once, and no matter how hard you want to forget him, one part of your heart would always remind you of him, that is, _if_ you want to forget him. Just, be yourself, look at things a brighter way. You still have your friends and family, make new friends._

Make new friends…My heart's too weighted. I can't do it, it'll just shatter again.

_Hey, new friends are like super glue. They'll glue those pieces back up with the help of your old friends and family. The only they'll cost you is time. _

…

_I'm right aren't I? You can't so anything. Well, it's up to you now, tuck Miroku away in your happy memories and looked toward happier memories._

"Eh, Sango? Are you all right? Sango?"

That's right…happier memories…

"Sango!" Somebody gave her a light slap to the face, and when she looked up she saw Hiroshima standing in front of her. His voice was covered with a certain layer of concern. "Are you sure you're all right? You've been spacing out a while."

Sango didn't say anything, she shook her head a bit, and her hand felt the area that he had slapped. It was tingling slightly, but she felt it. "Yes, I'm fine. Sorry."

Hiroshima laughed lightly. "No, no, it's all right. I get used to it, girls daydreaming about me and my good looks whenever I go on a date." He lifted up a small black plastic bag and shook it a little. "I got what I wanted. Come on, there's something I want to get you."

Sango was both surprised at what Hiroshima said, but she followed him anyway. _"Come on, there's something I want to get you."_ Get her? What could he get her? Sango stared at Hiroshima's back the whole time he walked. It was like, somehow she could see beyond the white jacket and the Prince Charming exterior and into the fragile interior. She couldn't place her finger on it, but somehow she had a feeling that both Jaamaru's have a scar inside. Like something bad happened to them.

Bump.

Lost in her thoughts, Sango didn't realize that Hiroshima had stopped walking and walked straight into his back. Rubbing her forehead slightly, she mumbled a quick, "Sorry."

Hiroshima smiled at her, for some reason her face was getting hot, "It's all right."

Sango sighed inwardly in relief when he looked away. After straightening herself up, Sango turned and looked up at the sign: Kinko's Trinkets and Accessories.

Trinkets and accessories? What would Hiroshima want here? The store looked like it mostly consisted of things that a boyfriend would get for a girlfriend and vice versa.

Nonetheless, Hiroshima walked in anda small bell rang.

"Hi! Welcome to Kinko's Trinkets and Accessories! Where we have the most wonderful products for the young lovers and their-…Oh, it's just you, Hiroshima." A girl that looked around Sango's age leaned onto the counter and looked at the pair with a bored-but-slightly-amused expression. Her light lavender eyes swept from Hiroshima to Sango and back. The girl brought a hand up to her purplish hair and brushed lightly down. "You here with another one?"

"Well…uh…eh heh heh heh heh…" Hiroshima's eyes looked away nervously. Obviously the two knew each other.

"Is she your new…" The purple-haired girl brought up her pinky.

"NO." Sango replied flatly. The girl was taken aback by the sudden answer.

"Oh…okay. Anyway, what're you doing here."

Hiroshima smiled. "Nothing much. Just want to buy something, Kinko."

Sango looked at him, he wanted to buy something. Was that what he meant when he said he was going to get her something? (A/N: snort No, der, smart one.)

Kinko rolled her lavender eyes. "Well, hurry it up, I'm on my lunch brake." She stretched her arms and yawned. "Go ahead, check out anything you want. But…" She glared at Hiroshima. "You brake anything, you buy it."

"Yes, yes, I already have in mind what I want." Hiroshima tapped a spot on the glass counter. "I want that one."

Sango followed his finger and saw that it was a plain, but extraordinary beautiful yin-yang necklace.

"Good." Kinko pulled out her keys and opened the display window and tossed the necklace to Hiroshima without much care. "That'll be $9.99"

"What? I still have to pay?" Hiroshima looked shocked.

"Yes, how else am I suppose to pay my bills, dumbass."

* * *

As soon as the bell rang, Flarenii tore from her classes and ran straight into the bus that would take her home.

* * *

"Hope you had fun today." Hiroshima said, smiling at Sango was he stopped in front of her front door.

Sango nodded, and opened her door. Just when Hiroshima turned to leave, Sango called him. "Wait."

The silver-haired Prince Charming turned around. "Thank you."

He smiled and gave a small cheery wave before turning around and heading back to his Porsche.

Sango closed the door softly behind her and scooped Kirara up when the little kitten ran happily toward her mistress. The brown-eyed girl slid down the door and sat on the ground in the dark, dark apartment room.

* * *

Flarenii brushed her teeth with such a cavity-killing intent that her brother was watching in amazent. "Flarenii, your gums are bleeding real bad, just so you know."

"…Fuck you."

* * *

**End Chapter 9**

Well, that's that folks. Hope you don't hate me too much for taking so long to update. We all know that it was school to blame for. Please review. (Flames welcome.)

P.S.-Sorry, if this chapter is shorter than my other ones. I was in a hurry.


	10. Chapter 10: Snap

**Disclaimer: I own Dark Horizon, bichies, not Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi does. Damn her!**

Big Q: Well, actually you can't since she's the one making the manga.

(jumps) When the hell did you get back?

Big Q: (shrugs) Just now. I got off not guilty.

Then what about Psyche?

Big Q: (creepy little smile) Oh…oops, fergot about her.

OoO

**Mucho thankies to my forever loyal reviewer KiT and to whomever else that reviewed for the last few chapters and for those that reviewed for the "in-the-future side" story that I've written A Simple Platonic Message. I'm just too lazy to try and remember their names and thank them all one at a time, so I'll just thank them all at once! Thank you all!**

Big Q: Wow, I'm impressed. I had no idea that you could actually find it in your brain to work out a few chapters on your own.

…Stfu…

Oh, yeah, a quick apology to all the people that read Chapter Nine. It wasn't until after I posted the new chapter did I realized that I had bunch of spelling mistakes and the whole thing didn't make any sense to me either. Some day I'll edit it.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Snap**

"You went on another date!" A black-haired girl exclaimed sudden surprise that her soda almost came snorting out her nostrils. As she hastily reached for a napkin to clean up the mess, Kagome listened with anticipation to Sango's response.

"It wasn't a date." Sango replied, frowning. When Kagome gave her a skeptical look, Sango blurted out, "No, it really wasn't!" quickly. It really, really wasn't. More like getting to know someone better. That didn't qualify as a date. No, it didn't. Yeah, it didn't. Sango shook her head to get rid of the self-assuring thoughts. No matter which way she putted it, Kagome was right, it was a date.

Kagome smiled at her playfully. "Don't lie, Sango. So, who did you go out with that other day?" She just had to know. Then she could tell Inuyasha and Shippo, and then the three of them would think of a scheme to get Sango and her new boyfriend together. Wait a sec, Kagome's thoughts froze…Were they even boyfriend and girlfriend yet?

Sango kept quiet and was intent on removing a tiny brown coffee stain on the counter next to Kagome's arm.

"C'mon, Sango, you could tell me. Soooooo…who was it? Pleasssseeee….Pretty plea-"

"Itwasthewaiterfromtherestuarantyoutookmeto."

Kagome blinked. "Wha?"

Sango sighed and threw the cleaning towel on the counter and leaned on her arm, her palm ruffling her hair. "It was the waiter from the restaurant that you took me to."

For the second time that day, Kagome was so shocked beyond all recognition that this time; it actually came out her nostrils. "WHAT! That guy!"

Sango nodded slowly.

Kagome gave herself a few minutes to take deep breaths and to wipe her nostrils clean. For four years, Sango blew off every guy that tried to pick her up and now, just out of the blue come two silver-heads that Sango immediately dates while they are still strangers to her. Kagome could definitely sense the change her best friend. Maybe Sango finally decided to let Miroku go after four years of living in her memories of him. "Was it another blind date?"

Sango shook her head. "No, he asked me out-Wait." It was then, that it dawned on her. Who was it that told Hiroshima where she lived?

"_I heard from a little feisty birdie that you don't go to work on Fridays. How 'bout you hang around with me for the day?"_

Little feisty birdie…Now, now, who could that possibly be. Feisty. Then recognition clicked on Sango's features. "What's up, Sango?" Kagome asked, curious of her friend's silence.

Sango could just picture it, Flarenii's beanie head attached to a bird body that is constantly annoying her. That _brat_! It just had to be her pulling the strings. First, she set her up on a date with Itachio and now the bastard's brother! Why she could just wring that little bitch's neck… "Nothing, 'cept I just found out how Hiroshima got my address."

Kagome settled back with a little disappointment. "Oh." She was hoping for something a little more climatic. "Well, are you sure that you don't want to come with us to Las Vegas next month? Kikyo's already got her bags packed." Kagome changed the subject.

Sango stayed quiet and her brown eyes stared a hole in the counter. Should she? Or should she not? "I'm sorry, Kagome, but I really don't know yet…"

Kagome smiled at her friend. "It's...all right Sango, but we'll really miss you there." Kagome bent down and sipped her drink before looking up with one last persuasion on her tongue. "You can bring anyone you want. Like that guy you went out with that other day."

Now that's a new idea. Maybe she should consider going, after all, it's been about four and a half years since she's seen Sin City… But if she was going to go, who would she bring? Kohaku for sure, but Mom and Dad probably don't want him to miss a couple days of school. Itachio…Hiroshima…Flarenii…maybe- Sango shook her head roughly. Why the fuck them? They've all just been a huge prick in the ass for her, causing her nothing but trouble. Their troubles just led from one thing to another. Flarenii talked her into going to a blind date with her little 'friend', Itachio was the one to be her blind date (speaking of Itachio, she hadn't seen him since that surprised meeting at that restaurant. She hadn't seen him either at the apartments; it was like he was avoiding her. No, wait, she was the one avoiding him…) and that lead to Hiroshima Jaamaru. Itachio's brother.

"I guess you won't be coming, huh?" Kagome asked, a little more dejected. She had hoped that maybe she could get Sango to really turn around and join in for some fun once in a while even though she may still be mourning the loss of Miroku. But, damn it, how many times did she ask Sango that question?

The sad-eyed girl smiled apologetically at her friend. "No, but let me think about it, I might be able to go."

That cheered Kagome up considerably. "Okay!" Placed into a rather chipper mood, Kagome finished off the rest of her drink, tipped Sango about twenty-five bucks and dashed off, saying that if she left a minute later, Inuyasha would be mad at her for being late for a date. Sango smiled inside, not that he had anything to complain about, Kagome always putted up with _him_ being the one late.

After cleaning up and finishing her shift at five, Sango said goodbye to Momiji and Botan, who had the next shift, and walked down the street to the market for some groceries.

* * *

Sango liked her converses, they were light and comfortable and they didn't make her feet stink too much when they sweat. She kept on watching her feet all the way that she didn't even notice she crossed the street into Albertson's. Sango blinked when she heard the sound of the automatic door opening. _That was fast…_

The first thing that Sango went to look for was the all-you-need-to-do-is-pop-it-into-the-microwave section. She couldn't cook something for shit. Now Kagome's mom was **THE **chef, one bite of her food and you'd swear that you had just died and gone to heaven. Sango made a note to herself to visit Kagome's place sometime soon. Yes, Kagome is still living with her mom-as lame as that sounds…but she is currently looking for a house for herself and Inuyasha; glad to know that her best friend wasn't going to spend the rest of her life living with her mom.

Pushing around a cart, Sango dumped loads of Campbells and Ragu and other such brands into the cart. Ironically the only thing that Sango could make without horribly burning the food is…a sandwich. It's not like you're cooking anything, just grab some bread, slap some cheese, ham and lettuce and BAM! A sandwich made perfecto.

She was out of Oreos, just as Sango left her cart and walked a little and reached up for the blue Oreo pack, a sudden noise and the pressure of another cart hitting her side brought her down.

"Oh, my fucken Gawd! Lookit what you did!" A young female voice near-shrieked. Pounding footsteps could be heard as Sango tried to gather herself off the floor. Being run over with a cart isn't fun when you land on your ribs. Think she broke her hip…

When Sango looked up, her brown eyes widened in surprise, Flarenii was standing in front of her, trying to gather up the things in the other cart, but more importantly a blob with silver head was coming this way.

_What…? Itachio._

Even from her spot on the floor, Sango could see that he was surprised as well to see her by the wall his eyes held shock momentarily. The guy stopped a distance away, one of his hands stuck deep inside his jacket pocket and his other hand dangling at his side. The two brothers weren't all that different. For one, they both preferred wearing light-colored clothes. Their movements, postures and all were almost exactly the same. No wonder she had mistaken Hiroshima for Itachio when she first saw him.

All those thoughts churned in Sango's head as Flarenii scrambled to gather their things. When the girl was done, the Chinese girl noticed the silence between the two older people as Sango got up and dusted her behind off. _My prize couple…_A deep smirk hidden by a look of annoyance. "Ya know, Itachio, when you run somebody over with a shopping cart, the polite thing to do would be to apologize. After all, it _was_ your fault the cart went flying in the first place."

Itachio glared at the young girl as she tried to spark a conversation between them. Shrugging, the silver-haired man tried to play it cool and muttered a, "Sorry."

Sango seemingly ignored him.

Flarenii sighed heavily, her shoulders drooping. _There goes my hopes and dreams being tossed straight out the window by a pair of monotonous robots that can't seem to get along. WTF, dude! They're personalities are both about as interesting as watching toenails grow! So what went wrong? _

The three stood silent in the aisle for a moment until a busy mother pushing a shopping car and a strolling chair with about five kids in it at the same time walked by and picked up the couple boxes of Oreos that Sango dropped and walked off leaving the trio once again in silence.

"Dude, that woman just took off with your Oreos." Flarenii pointed out to Sango.

Sango didn't spare her a glance, but inside she was sort of disappointed. Damn that bitch! How dare she run off with _her_ Oreos!

"Uh…Get some ham, will ya."

A monotonous voice that had stayed quiet for a while spoke up and once again shattering the glass of awkward silence among the trio. Sango turned her head a little to spare the other two a glance and saw Itachio scratching the back of his head a little distracted while Flarenii placed a hand on her hip and leaned on her left leg. "What am I, yo fucken mom? Go get it yerself."

"Then what was the whole point of you coming with me to help me with my shopping."

"You made me go out and have some 'fresh air'. How is shopping in a stinky store with wailing quadruplets 'fresh air'?"

"Actually there were five of them."

"I don't give a fuck! Okay, okay, I'll get your damn ham…Jesus; it's on the other fucken side of the fucken store…"

"Can't she ever just talk like everybody else. I swear that she's making it a life-time goal to slip in naughty language in every other word she says."

"Pfft!" Itachio looked at her with shock and mild curiosity. Even she herself was puzzled as to why she was suddenly chuckling softly to herself. I don't know, but for some reason listening to that conversation between Flarenii and Itachio, just really…you know, made her want to laugh it out to show how pathetic it was with their useless arguments. It was almost like a typical brother/sister argument. You'd think that if Flarenii would bitch less about things and if Itachio didn't have to be so damn robotic, the world would be a better place. But what was she to say about this? She didn't know anything about them. She didn't know anything about anyone anymore.

"_It…takes time to heal something broken. Don't reject what time has to offer."_

Kaede had said that to her once, a few years back, but back then Sango barely paid attention to what the old lady had to say about the tragedy. She was too busy locking herself away in her roomful of angst and tears. (A/N: plays "Here Comes the Bride" theme Here comes the angst-queen, here comes the angst-queen…Don't know why I just said that…) So, don't reject what time has to offer. What did time had to offer though? More pain? More regrets? Cut the crap, you're not fit to preach, old lady.

"THAT WAS MY HAM! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING, BITCH!"

A loud, rude voice broke the strange moment as Itachio turned away from her and looked down the aisle that Flarenii had walked down a couple minutes before to get the ham.

"Trouble again?" Sango asked, pushing her cart alongside Itachio's.

"Bet my butt on it…Oh, um…sorry about before, didn't mean to get you all…" Itachio wracked his brain for any other word besides angry or upset. "…medieval on me that other night and sorry about the cart, I was aiming at Flarenii…"

Sango didn't say anything in reply. Sometimes, it's best to leave things hanging in suspense.

The two walking side-by-side was oddly…comforting. It was just like they were used to being around each other. Like how you and your best friend would always walk together to school talking about unimportant things, it's just, you need that space of air next to you to be your best friend.

They soon came upon a pretty loud scene. There stood Flarenii facing off with a rather large man with fuck-ass hairy arms and BO that could knock out a T-rex. (And t-rexes have breaths that could kill you, literally…, so that's saying something.) The two were arguing and spewing spittle at each other while a crowd of onlookers stood watching in amusement as a little twelve-year-old girl trying to make a dude three times her age and four times her size to back off.

"WTF! YOUR HAM! I DON'T SEE YOUR EFFING NAME WRITTEN ON IT! AND EVER HEARD OF DEODERANT? 'CUZ YOU NEED IT!" The young Chinese girl shouted, her furious braces showing.

The man spat on the ground a dangerously close inch near Flarenii's foot. "THAT WAS MY HAM! I SET IT THERE TO GET SOMETHING ELSE, YOU LITTLE THIEF!"

Flarenii stuck out her tongue and before the man could retort, the stores manager finally managed to get onto the scene and stepped between the two shouting people. "All right, enough. What the hell is goin' on here?"

"IT'S HER! THAT LITTLE BRAT TOOK MY HAM!"

The manager barely managed to get out of spitting range and he urged the guy to calm down. "Please, sir, calm down a bit." He turned his attention to the seething little girl. "Little girl-" That earned a withering glare from Flarenii. However, that had little effect on the near bald manager; he simply gave back the stern glare. "Now, now, didn't your mother ever teach you to not steal from other people? You could be severely punished."

Flarenii stared back in disbelieve. "Oh, so you just believe what he says? I didn't steal the ham; it was just effing sitting there!"

* * *

"#$$$..." Flarenii grumbled the whole time that Itachio and Sango stood in line waiting to check out. The girl had obviously lost the argument and had to pay for the ham. (Well, actually she didn't, she made Itachio pay.)

Sango watched with quiet amusement as Flarenii muttered furiously under her breath and make strangling motions with her hands in the air. Itachio walked next to the girl carrying _all_ of the grocery bags (except for Sango's) with a look on his face like nothing happened. Ever since she had first met him, she often wondered what made the guy have a blank look 24/7.

Itachio stopped in front of a silver Silverado and he turned around, awkwardly looking at Sango. Flarenii was captivated by the corpse of a little bird that Itachio had ran over when he was attempting to park the truck.

"Erm…I'll give you a lift home if you want." Silver eyes shifted left and right, forcefully trying to not look directly at her.

Flarenii stood up after staying bent over and snorted, "Of course you're going to take me home, dumbass."

Itachio turned his head and glared at the girl. "I wasn't talking to you."

The twelve-year-old's mouth formed a huge "o" before looking at Sango and Itachio. "Well, I'll be waiting in the car."

Sango followed Flarenii with her eyes as she opened the door, climbed in, and slammed it shut, causing the whole truck to rock slightly.

"I thought I told you not to slam the door so hard." Itachio called, his robotic voice ringing out into the parking lot.

A slim, bony middle finger shone through the back window with Flarenii's childish face in a "Fuck you" expression.

Itachio didn't give much thought to that, instead he turned back to Sango and asked, "How 'bout it?"

Sango followed Flarenii's suit and got into the car, muttering a, "Sure, why not? We live across from each other." As she walked by Itachio.

The car ride was pretty much silent as Itachio drove the car, Sango stared out the window, and Flarenii read a pamphlet about sexual harassment. Sango tore her eyes from the passing streets and concentrated on her green converses. Green meant life. Green meant rebirth. Now where did people come up with that? Green was just a color, just like life was just a hopeless nightmare that humans dream up.

"Nice shoes."

Sango turned to see the girl sitting on her left. (A/N: They're sitting in a row in the front, with Flarenii in the middle.) Flarenii was nodding her approval. "Green and pink are like shitty matches, but they look pretty good you." Flarenii went back to reading her pamphlet, one finger picking idly at her braces.

"Yes, coming from a girl that has absolutely no fashion sense." Itachio's dry voice spoke as he made another right turn.

"Shut the fuck up."

"Careful, you shouldn't read when you're in a car or you might get carsick again."

"…"

Sango turned to the two arguing friends; surprised because of the fact that this time the little girl didn't say anything stupid and pointless back at Itachio. It was hard to read the look on her face, so Flarenii's carsick. That came as a surprise.

Flarenii suddenly stuffed the pamphlet into her side-bag and stared ahead, blinking a couple of times. "I think I'm going to puke…" She faked a gagging motion.

Itachio shook his head. "No, no, not in the car. Lean out the side."

Sango sank back into the comfort of the seat, suddenly wishing that she hadn't sat next to the girl.

"Just kidding."

Flarenii would have dropped dead when both the adults in the car turned to glare at her simultaneously. As Itachio glared down at the girl, he looked up into Sango's eyes and smiled briefly. That caught her off guard and she quickly returned to her window staring. Damn him and his Prince Charming-ness!

As the car pulled up to her apartment complex, Sango opened the door hastily before the car even stopped, with her groceries in hand Sango slammed the door shut and waved before turning around and walking into the building without speaking.

Flarenii scooted over to the passenger seat, still warm from when Sango sat on it and looked out the rolled-down window to see Sango walk down the halls of the building. "Wasn't she awfully quiet?" She didn't expect an answer from her companion and she never got one as Itachio got the truck back onto the road and started for the residential part of town.

Flarenii pulled out her notebook and started scribbling some things in it. Itachio kept his eyes on the road, his finger tapping against the steering wheel impatiently as he waited for the green light. The interior of the truck was in a quiet world apart from the noise of the outside world, the only noise heard were Itachio's impatient finger-tapping, the soft radio tones and Flarenii tapping her foot.

Not being able to bear the silent noises and tapping, a fist suddenly descended on the wheel hard, and the silver-eyed driver slumped down into his seat, his bowed head resting on the steering wheel.

Flarenii didn't need to look up and she instead turned the page. "You shouldn't snap when you're driving. By the way, the light just went green."

Whether or not Itachio had heard her didn't matter because he drove on anyway. Flarenii looked at her friend from the corner of her eye before sighing. "Hey, Ita, isn't it that time of the month? You'd think flowers wilt after a year."

If anybody else had been listening to the conversation, they would have said gotten the wrong idea. No, not talking about periods here. Itachio's finger-tapping ceased immediately, and Flarenii smirked to herself. _Got him._ The girl continued talking like nothing had happened. "You should just give up it's because of _her_ that you couldn't pay for your old apartment's rent. You're getting your money leeched away, Ita. Give up like Shima, maybe you'll be able to save up more mon-"

A fist shot out and gripped the side of the girl's neck sharply and tightly. As, Flarenii shouted out in surprise, Itachio's eyes took for a wild turn, he was like a totally different person. An insane different person. His grip tightened and his nails dug into her skin, piercing a thin layer of it. When he spoke, his voice was deep, dark and cold like who he used to be; the "_real_" him. "Don't. Let. Me. Hear. You. Say. That. **EVER.** Again. You got that, you little bitch?" His breath tickled her ear, as he growled at her. His silver eyes glistened in the dark car.

Flarenii's eyes were trembling. _Crap…ah, crap!_ Though, she hid and covered her fear. With a smirk, she brushed his hand away from her throat roughly. "Hn. Whatever you say, asshole." She slammed the door behind her and tore through her front door, slamming the door behind her. She ignored Laramie's, "What happened to you?" question and headed upstairs to her room, slamming the door shut as well.

The girl sat with her back to the door, gasping for breath. _There goes improvement down the drain. Gawd, I'm such a fucken idiot!_ Flarenii clutched her chest as her breathing calmed down, her other hand grasping for her beanie. With a tug, she tossed the head accessory across the room, her black hair hanging in her face. "You really should give up, Ita. Maybe then the other you would go away." A smile worked its way onto her fear-made pale face.

Outside in his truck, Itachio gripped his head and slammed it onto the steering wheel. The horn honked, as he rested his head on the wheel. Tonight would be a long night…

**End Chapter 10

* * *

**

Who else was confused? looks around. I know, so was I. I honestly had no idea what I wrote, but enjoy it anyway. (Or not.) Leave a review on the way out, please. I wanna know your opinion. Am I confusing you? Maybe I should add Inuyasha and Co. more? Or maybe this story is plain going downhill? (Flames welcome. Though I haven't gotten any yet. NOT THAT I WANT THEM OR ANYTHING!)


	11. Chapter 11:Question and Answer

**Disclaimer: God, just kill me now…I DON'T OWN INUYASHA!**

Anyway, I'd just like to thank everybody for reviewing, particularly KiT for being my most loyal and faithful reader. If you guys have been waiting patiently for a month for me to update, thank you. My excuse is…school sucks mondo. I'll try to update sooner next time, but I'm thinking maybe one chapter every two weeks? I'll try to aim for that. Anyway, here comes chappie 11!

* * *

**Chapter 11: Question and Answer**

After getting home, Sango dumped everything she bought next to the fridge, took a shower, and went to bed with her hair dripping wet and Kirara complaining about having to share a sleeping space with something wet. (Complaining meaning hissing and scratching.)

And so Sango woke up the next morning with an extremely bad mood, a small horizontal scratch right smack in the middle of her two eyebrows, and a cold. After sneezing her way through shower, she got to actually putting her groceries away.

"Soup…soup…canned thingy…cat food. Kirara, come here, I got your breakfast." Sango called out to her cat as she crossed her tiny kitchen and looked for her trusty can-opener in her drawers.

Most of her drawers contained useless shit: toothpicks, scissors, "Thinking About Suicide?" pamphlets…Finally she got to the drawer at the end of the row and pulled it open, the first thing that hit her was the necklace that Hiroshima had bought for her the time they went to the mall together. Sango fingered the necklace, turning it around. Black and white…She had almost forgotten where she placed this, Sango didn't want Kirara swallowing and choking on it so she put it somewhere where her cat couldn't get it. In the end, she herself couldn't find it. How lame was that? Very, very lame.

Smiling a little to herself, Sango placed the necklace into the back of the drawer. It was then that she felt a sharp nick at the tip of her middle finger. Surprised, she drew her hand back out, shocked to see a thin line of blood running down a slim digit.

Sango pulled the drawer fully out to get a better look at what had cut her. That was when she saw it and her eyes darkened –the razorblades. Those were her best friends in the past four years. Her real friends may have stopped her from killing herself, but they never found out she cuts herself whenever they're not around.

Slowly, she picked one up in front of her eyes. The edges of the blades were clean and shiny as if it were brand new. As if in a trance, she brought her wrist up and rested the edge of the blade against her wrist. Her heart pounded in her ears. She _needed_ to open her skin; she needed to feel the warmth flow down her arm freely. She had to see the delicious red overtaking her. She-

"Mreow…"

That did it. Kirara's soft meow and nudge against Sango's leg snapped her out of it. The brown-haired girl gasped in shock and with a small _clink_ the razorblade fell to her kitchen floor.

W-what was she thinking! She stopped doing that months ago. Breathing deeply for air as if she had been holding her breath for a long time, Sango gripped her head. This had to stop.

Kirara sat on her hunches watching her master with her unblinking, red cat eyes.

Slowly, Sango's hand dropped and hanged next to her sides. Still breathing heavily, Sango's brown eyes turned and met Kirara in the eyes. Master and servant regarded each other with a stare filled with a thousand words. Without a sound, Kirara padded over to Sango and rested her fluffy chin on Sango's thigh. An animal's affection to her master.

She finally blinked, and Sango patted Kirara's soft head before reaching over to the fallen can of cat food, using the side of the razorblade she pried open the can. Dumping it into Kirara's own special little bowl, Sango gave a small smile.

As Kirara melted away in Cat-Food Land, Sango's smile grew and she scratched the cat behind the ears with affection. "Thank you…"

* * *

Kagome's uneasiness grew with each passing minute as she turned the corner to Myelid (pronounced 'Me-ya-lead') Middle School. Sango would _always _pick up her brother, Kohaku, on Fridays. Was she thinking of suicide again? Kagome shook her head roughly. NO! Sango stopped that months ago, she had to have faith in her best friend.

Right when it was her shift off, Kagome had received a call from Sango, asking if she would mind picking her little brother up from school. Kagome obviously didn't mind, but she just couldn't help wondering if there was an alternate reason behind the: "I just don't feel well today…"

_Oh, well, I guess she's just asking for a bubble to think in…_Kagome thought as she stopped the car on the curb. When she opened the door and got out, she immediately found Kohaku sitting on a bench with another girl. The boy looked a little harassed and the girl seemed to be pestering him with questions or what not because she was holding a notepad and seemed to be scribbling down everything Kohaku said.

Kagome blinked. Was she a stalking fan girl? A mischievous smile flashed on the raven-haired girl's face. _Wow, I had no idea that Kohaku could charm girls already._ But it was then that Kagome choked on her thoughts and recognition clicked somewhere in her mind. Wait a damn second…

* * *

_Kagome's smile greeted a surprised Sango. Inuyasha walked in after Kagome with Shippo behind him. Our silver-haired dude made sure that he didn't walk near Kikyo when he stood next to Sango. Shippo however didn't get a chance to say "Hi." to Kikyo as Momiji and Botan rushed at him with open arms. Literally._

"_Who's this? Friend of yours?" Inuyasha asked, picking Flarenii up by the collar of her shirt._

_Both Kagome and Inuyasha's eyebrows made like the Rock when they read the girl's shirt._

_Sango looked away. "No, I don't know her, but she was starting to annoy me."_

"_A-annoy you? Oh, I'll fucking annoy you all right!" Flarenii flailed and tried to get out of Inuyasha's grip._

_Inuyasha didn't even seem troubled; he gave the girl a shake that made her braces jiggle. "Little brats like you shouldn't be using big words."_

"_Look who's talking." Flarenii smirked and pulled her Smith & Wesson right in front of Inuyasha's face and pulled the trigger._

_There was a large popping noise as a mini-flag with the word' Bang!' shot out which caused our dear Inuyasha to jump and drop our very disgruntled Flarenii on her ass on the floor. The spunky twelve-year-old scrambled onto her feet and slammed a few dollar bills on the counter in front of Koharu's face before taking off calling a, "This isn't the last of me!" over her shoulder._

"_Wha…" Kagome started, but Inuyasha yelled over her._

"_Hey, watch it, kid!"_

_Flarenii had ran right smack in the middle of the street with a huge freighter truck coming at her. At the last minute, she turned around and waved goodbye to our lovely heroes with an I-love-to-annoy-geeks-like-you smirk on her face. The truck honked and drove past her, Flarenii out of their sights. _

_Kagome gasped, believing that the truck had ran her over. Sango was shocked as well, but that changed when the truck passed. There was nobody there, and no still form of a poor kid that got ran over. Then where did Flarenii poofed to?_

"_Well, that was weird." Inuyasha muttered.

* * *

_

Kagome gasped, that girl was the same person from the Café! Walking as fast as she could in her high-heeled sandals, she made her way past all the other parents that were picking up their kids and the other students. _Gosh, darn it! I knew I shouldn't have worn high heels today!_ Kagome mentally screamed at herself in frustration. Fuck it, her feet already hurt from walking around spraying the flowers in the flower/antique shop that she worked at.

"Sooooo…yer name's Kohaku Taijiya, right? And you're Sango's younger sister, right? And you're13, right? Only a year older…Hello? Say something, dude." The strange girl shook her pen in front of the distressed boy.

Kohaku's eyes looked from the girl and the quickest way away from her and back. "Umm…yeah…Er…who're you?"

"The best match-maker that the world has ever seen!" The girl's outburst nearly made Kohaku fall backwards from the bench he was sitting on and straight into the bush behind him.

A clear sweat drop was forming at the back of Kohaku's head as he laughed nervously, thinking that the girl might be one of the kids from the special-education classes. "Eh…heh heh heh…right…"

"Kohaku!"

The amber-eyed (A/N: I just found out his name meant "amber" in Japanese. Is that cool or what? XD…Okay, I'll shut up…) looked up and when he saw the person that had called his name, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Kagome…" Just as Kohaku stood up, he felt a bony hand latched onto his arm, stopping him. Shudder…fucken creepy hand…

"Hang on, dude, I'm not done 'inter-o-gating' you yet!" The Chinese girl glared at him. It was kind of embarrassing for Kohaku, seeing as how he was a year older than her, yet she was just about the same height as him. Maybe he should actually start drinking his milk…

When Kagome finally approached Kohaku and the girl, she doubled over and gasped for air. Man, she had never speed-walked that far and that fast in her entire life. Maybe she's been putting on extra weight or something…NO!

Kohaku noticed that his sister's best friend was panting heavily and he bent down until he was at eye level with the girl. "Um…Kagome, are you all right?"

"Yeah…_pant_…I'm…_pant_…fine." Kagome straightened up and looked down (well not really down, the girl was almost as tall as her, jeez, what's with all the skinny people being so tall these days? It's like…DAMMIT!) at the Chinese girl. "I-It's you!" Her eyes went from Kohaku to the girl who still had her arm attached to him.

When Flarenii finally realized why Kagome's eyes were going to and back from her and the other kid, she quickly released her grip on him. "Completely platonic. I don't have any interest in guys at the moment, and I'm not saying I'm lesbian or nothing but I have absolutely nothing against girls who're like that."

Kagome blinked. O…kay. That sounded a little like what the girl was wearing when her and Inuyasha had first encountered the strange youth.

Kohaku looked greatly relieved when she finally let go and shook his arm to get the circulation going. Yes, she had been gripping his arm that tight. Just when he was about to ask why wasn't his older sister picking him up, Flarenii spoke again.

"Ignore what I just said." Stuffing her notepad back into her side bag, the girl's hand suddenly went for her neck. Flarenii winced and massaged her neck as she spoke. "Anyway, do I know you? Just to let you know, my daddy says I'm not allowed to talk to strangers."

Kohaku almost choked, was this girl a fucking hypocrite or what! She was a complete stranger to him and there she comes waltzing up to him and starts asking him damn personal questions. He, however being the nice little boy that he is, decided to keep quiet.

Meanwhile, when Flarenii talked Kagome had followed the young girl's hand up to her neck and it was then that she noticed the red lines and light, little bruises that most likely had been caused by a rough hand. Was this child getting abused or something?

Flarenii had noticed Kagome staring at her throat and she pulled her black jacked collar up hastily to hide the red and bruises with a look on her face like, "What the hell you lookin' at?"

Kagome was confused, why was the girl trying to hide that. Kohaku brought her back down to earth. "Um…Kagome, could we go now? I'd like to see my sister, and uh…I'm kind of hungry." The boy grinned sheepishly.

Kagome nodded and said, "But we have to pick up Shippo and Rin first. It'll be quick okay? Here's the keys, why don't you go wait in the car first." Confused but grateful, Kohaku took the keys from Kagome and started over to the Malibu that Kagome had borrowed from Inuyasha.

"Can I get a ride? I missed the bus."

The girl's question caught Kagome off-guard. "What?"

Flarenii rolled her dark-brown eyes. "Need hearing-aides or something, lady? I said, could I get a ride from you. I missed the bus. If it's going to be no, I might as well start walking the long way home. Oh, the agony." Flarenii turned around, her back to Kagome and started to slowly walk away.

Kagome sighed, this girl really needed to work on her whole guilt trip thing. "I never said no."

Almost instantly, Flarenii turned around with a semi-smile on her face. "Thank you very much!"

As she and Kagome started walking side-by-side to where Kohaku was waiting, Kagome blinked when she realized something. She never got the girl's name. "Hey, I'm just wondering, but what's your name."

Flarenii looked at Kagome out of the corner of her eye. "Not that it's any of your business…"

"Kagome."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm Flarenii."

_Flarenii._ Kagome blinked. Okay, now that was a weird name. The raven-haired girl shrugged it off, she had heard weirder.

Kohaku was shocked when he saw Flarenii walking over to the car. Flarenii opened the passenger side door and climbed in giving Kagome a look. "I'm old enough to sit in front of the 'dangerous' airbag, aren't I?"

Kagome shrugged and started the car, getting onto the road. Kohaku, sitting in the back was surprised that Kagome was giving the girl a ride. Her black beanie-covered head was right in front of him.

Kagome looked both ways before driving on. Safety first! "We're going to be making some stops before I can drop you off, just let you know."

Flarenii shrugged, obviously she didn't mind. After a minute or so of driving silently, Flarenii pulled out her notepad, clicked her pen a couple of times and turned her eyes toward Kagome, flashing her special business-woman smile. "Sooo…I take it you're Sango's best friend, right, Kagome?"

Kohaku leaned against the headrest of the chair in front of him. _I feel sorry for Kagome. This girl is absolutely ruthless; she's been stalking me ever since lunch period.

* * *

_

After about the fiftieth question, Kagome nearly lost it and snapped. Flarenii stopped with the questions and instead decided to "analyze" the information that she had already gathered. Oh, she loved this job; it's almost like being a secret agent. (Being an agent was her childhood dream until being a matchmaker came along.) Chewing the tip of her pen, her dark brown eyes zoomed across the page of her notebook. She narrowed her eyes, she should start writing neater. Kinda sucks when even you can't read your own handwriting…

**Test Subject #1: Lame-ass**

**Cons: **

**-Still absolutely obsessed with **(whatever was written here was completely illegible and it looked like someone had spilt dark brown sauce on it.)

**-Still bumps into Abi from time to time.**

**-Work has plenty of girls to grab.**

**-Is a completely boring motherfucker that talks like a robot half the time.**

**-Skinny and tall. Girls have problem kissing him. (Ewww….)**

**Pros:**

**-More than 15 girls said he was cute. Most of them being strangers.**

**Personal info:**

Flarenii narrowed her eyes, some day she'll have to fill that page in too. Turingthe page, she focused her attention onto…

**Test Subject #2: Sandy**

**Cons:**

**-A depress-o-atic.**

**-Pissed at the moment and threw a right-hook.**

(Here is pasted a picture of an agitated Sango and a completely surprised Itachio with a tough fist in the side of his face.)

**-Has a boyfriend.**

**Pros:**

**-Lame-ass thinks she's cute. (Only said that to about 3 other girls in his entire boring lifetime.)**

**-Sort of tall. Won't have any trouble making out with him. (Once again: Ewww…)**

**-Boyfriend passed on to the sunny gates and eternal sunshine. R.I.P. (Miroku-need to get last name.)**

**Personal info:**

**-Little brother-Kohaku Taijiya goes to same school.**

**-Works at Miko Internet Café and shifts are: **

**M-W**

**11 A.M. to 3 P.M.**

**5 P.M. to 7 P.M.**

**F-Sun.**

**12 P.M. to 4 P.M.**

As the car pulled to a stop in front of an elementary school, Flarenii snapped her notebook shut and looked at the ceiling of the car. If she were to find out more, she would need to review all the video and audio tapes that she had recorded when Itachio and Hiroshima had spent time with _her_. Yes, she had a bug on Itachio. Hey, she had to find some way to keep an eye and ear on him to make sure he didn't do something stupid.

"Kagome!"

Flarenii turned her head to look out of the driver's window and saw two young kids running this way as fast as their short legs would. Kagome smiled and rolled down the window. "Shippo! Rin!"

Flarenii did a double take when she saw the orange-headed short little boy coming over here. The black-haired girl remained a mystery, but this little booger she remembered.

* * *

_Shippo tugged at Flarenii's shirt and looked up at her with determination in his eyes. "I want to know what happened last week."_

_Flarenii scowled and held up her side bag and shook it in Shippo's face. "Look here, little brat, us middle-schoolers have a thing called plenty-of-crappy-homework to do after school. I don't have time to tell some little story to a little pre-schooler like you."_

_Shippo glared at her. "I may look small, but I'm in fifth grade!" After a minute of glaring at each other, Shippo came up with a resolve. "Then tell me at Chuck E. Cheeses at 6: 30 sharp!"_

_Flarenii looked at him with blank brown eyes before sighing. "Fine, but it better be quick."_

(A/N: Gee, everybody's remembering things today, huh?)

* * *

As young Shippo neared the car, his running slowed when he looked past Kagome and saw the dark brown-eyed girl. _She looks kinda familiar…_

Rin noticed that her friend was a little distracted. "What's wrong, Shippo?"

The orange-head shook his head roughly, "Nothing."

As the two kids climbed into the back with Kohaku, Rin and the older boy instantly striked up a conversation while Shippo focused his attention onto beanie-wearing girl sitting in the passenger's seat. Before he could say anything though, the girl turned around and faced him and ran with an almost business-like smile on her brace-face. Those braces are kinda creeping him out…

The girl cleared her throat and held her notebook out in front of her. "So, kid, what's your relationship with Sango?"

Shippo blinked. "Huh, what?"

Kagome and Kohaku sighed deeply. So this was what déjà vu felt like…

**End Chapter 11

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**

All I have to say is…leave a review on the way out. (For whomever is actually reading this anyway.)


	12. Chapter 12:Flying Dog Monkeys

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.**

Once again I'd like to thank everybody that reviewed my fanfic. You guys really make me feel special. (-ed…). Nah, just kidding. But anyway, my thoughts and ideas are all in scrambles so I'll need to do a good job organizing them. (Whatever thoughts and ideas that I have at the moment…) So, if this chapter is a bit confusing just tell me in a review and maybe for the next chapter I'll actually write down my ideas.

What're you doing?

Psyche: (shuffle) Nothing…

C'mon, let me see!

Psyche: Alright, alright, shut the fuck up. (steps aside)

(Big Q in a bright pink tutu and dancing the can-can with her eyes crossed.)

Big Q: (in high squeaky voice) CAN YOU DO THE CAN-CAN! CAN YOU DO THE CAN-CAN! CAN YOU DO THE CAN, CAN, CAN, CAN, CAN!

0.0

Psyche: (snicker) Two and a half pounds of sugar in her morning tea and BAM! Entertainment to last me at least half a day!

She'll kill you when she wakes up. You _do_ know that right?

Psyche: 0.0 Oh, shi…

* * *

**Chapter 12: Flying Dog-Monkeys**

"Uh…"

"ANSWER THE GODDAMN QUESTION, PIPSQUEAK!"

"Why should I! It isn't any of your business anyway!"

"I'LL MAKE IT MY EFFING BUSINESS!"

"You can't do that!"

"YES, I CAN!"

"No, you CAN'T!"

"YES, I CAN!"

"No, you CAN'T!"

"Um, guys, stop arguing?" Kagome asked, a sweat drop already rolling down the back of her head. This was getting really old; not to mention annoying.

Ever since they had picked up Shippo and Rin from the elementary school and Flarenii began integrating Shippo, the two had bickered almost endlessly. At first it started out okay, Shippo was answering the questions, but after a while, it just became agitating just listening to the annoying twelve-year-old. Even Rin and Kohaku found it hard to hold a conversation when two of the other occupants in the car were having a screaming match.

"YES, I CAN!"

"No, you CAN'T!"

Kagome knew it was no use telling the two young kids to stop, but hey, if at first you fail; try, try, and try again, right? Besides, all their yelling at each other was distracting her from her driving, and Inuyasha wouldn't like it if she were to return his new car back to him with a repair bill in tow. He did have insurance covering his car, right? "Stop arguing, please?"

"YES, I CAN!"

"No, you CAN'T!"

Suddenly, Kagome's shoulders started trembling slightly, and her grip on the steering wheel was so steel-like that Kohaku and Rin could even hear the material squeak over the screaming. Kagome was gonna blow in the car any minute now. Seeing as how he was the only man in the car, Kohaku had to take charge of the situation.

With his most manly voice, Kohaku tried to make himself heard over the childish yelling. "Um, Shippo, could you mayb-"

Too late.

"I've asked countless times and I'm getting seriously tired from all your yelling."

Kohaku gulped loudly from somewhere in the back while Rin, who was sitting right behind the driver's seat couldn't exactly see Kagome silently seething; not that the child had actually ever seen Kagome go nuclear. Shippo had stopped yelling and was looking at Kagome. One look was enough for him to go quiet.

But dear old Flarenii never listens to anyone (or anything for the matter) and was right in the middle of shouting back a "YES, I CAN!" when the car suddenly stopped moving with a loud screeching sound and Flarenii, who was facing the back of the car, was only kept from hitting back first into the dashboard because of her seat belt, felt herself fly back, - and then smack her face into the headrest on the seat. Ouch.

The next thing her brain could register was the passenger door suddenly opening and her flying out into the residential sidewalk ass first. Double Ouch.

Kagome drove on as if nothing had happened. Putting on a cheerful smile Kagome managed to somewhat convince the two boys in the car that the raven-haired girl had a split-personality disorder. Meanwhile, Rin just sat there confused as to why Shippo and Kohaku were pissing in their pants scared. Well, the 'pissing in their pants' part sort of only applied to Shippo. Kohaku just looked like a dead piece of wood, - that was scared of course.

"Now then, let's go visit Sango and Grandma Kaede at the apartments shall we?"

"…"

* * *

Meanwhile on the sidewalk with your brilliant little matchmaker-to-be:

"Ow, ow, ow, I swear I broke my fucken ass-bone." The Chinese girl grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut as she used a nearby tree for support.

After finally managing to stand up, the girl pulled her face into an angry and ugly look. _The bitch and me are SO not gonna get along._ (A/N: And that was exactly what I thought when I first saw Kagome in action. But, alas, no Kagome-bashing in this fic. Too bad.) As soon as she stood to her full height without the aid of the tree, the girl immediately doubled over and groped her rear (In a non-wrong way I tell you!). "Bitch, mother..!"

In that bent over, ass-groping position, the girl searched for her cell phone. "Damn it! Where the hell is that shit phone of mine…," Flarenii searched in every pocket that she had on her and the only things she could find were house keys, lunch money that weren't hers, pocket lint, pocket lint, and more pocket lint. "Oh, yeah, I left them in my side bag. Silly me." With a smile her hand reached for her side, - only to find air.

Her smile disintegrated as she panicked. Where the fuck was her fucken side bag!

"…"

Damn, this is **SO** not good. Her side bag must still be in that bitch's car. Flarenii head-banged the tree trunk and was awarded with a sharp pain traveling from her skull all the way down her spine and tingled her tail bone. Err, ass bone. Whatever.

"**DAMN!**" Gritting her teeth, Flarenii looked around, there was no one around and she was in a neighborhood she wasn't exactly familiar with.

Okay, first things first. She had to somehow find the bitch and get her side bag back. Kagome had said that she was going to take Kohaku to see Sango so that they would be at the apartments. Great, so not only does she have a broken ass, she had to _walk_ all the way to Lame-ass's place. Could things get any worse than this?

After taking a few small steps, still bent over, Flarenii could hear a car pulling up behind her and before she could turn around to see who it was, a voice called out.

"Hey, Flarenii, doncha know that masturbation eventually leads to depression."

And it just got worse.

With a ferocious string of colorful words and insults just at the tip of her tongue, ready to fly out in the face of the bastard that **dare** say that to her, Flarenii spun around as quickly as her injured butt would allow her, just about to snarl when her anger contorted face fell blank. "Heeeeeeyyyyyyyy, it's you!"

* * *

After tossing out the screaming Chinese girl, the car had gotten awfully quiet until Kagome felt that since she was in really high spirits that here had to be some music. So, the raven-haired girl flipped to the classical music station and started humming to the tune of Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

_Kagome usually falls asleep whenever she hears this station._ Shippo's emerald eyes zoomed over to see the back of Kagome's head. _This is really weird._

It wasn't long before they pulled up and parked next to the sidewalk. It was a sunny afternoon and the kids that had just got home from school were playing outside on the lawn in front of the apartment. Kagome got out followed by the young three. Rin, being the young youthful child that she was, skipped around the now-cheery Kagome while the two boys stayed behind her, fearing that she might all of a sudden snap.

It turned out that Sango was not her room when Kaede stepped out of her room (which was on the first floor near the entrance) and gave an old wrinkled smile. Rin and Shippo ran to hug the grandmotherly lady while Kohaku beamed at the old woman.

"It's so nice to see you again, Grandma Kaede!" Kagome gave her a hug as soon as Rin and Shippo ran into the room to steal cookies from the cookie jar that the landlady had in her kitchen.

Kaede gave a light laugh. "It is the same here, child." She stepped aside from the doorway and invited Kohaku and her in.

"Sango!" Kagome sent a near-crushing hug to her best friend as soon as she saw the brown-eyed girl in the living room drinking tea.

As soon as Kagome let go, Sango felt another tight hug from her younger brother. "Sister!"

Sango gave a small, tiny, almost non-existent smile and ruffled Kohaku's hair. "It's great to see you too, Kohaku." She turned to give that same small smile to Kagome. "And you too, Kagome."

Kagome returned a huge smile before taking a seat on the sofa next to Sango. "So, feeling any better? You sounded pretty bad when you called me."

At that, Sango's face dropped. Whatever cheer that was on her face a second ago was gone now. Oops, wrong thing to say, Kagome.

"I'm sorry for the trouble, Kagome."

Kagome nodded understandingly. "Don't worry about it. It wasn't much trouble." She had a feeling that Sango was hiding something from her when she called and now she confirmed it: Sango was having tea with Kaede with the _SPECIAL_ tea set which meant that the two of them must have been discussing something really (x100) important.

Well, whatever it was, Kagome was fine with not knowing about it. Even though she wanted to help her best friend through her troubles, if Sango didn't want to talk about it now, it would do no good to force her to tell her.

"Sister," Kohaku spoke up over the two girls' chatter. "We made something in art class and uh…" The boy's face went red with embarrassment. "I wanted to show it to you."

Sango smiled at her younger brother, a smile slightly bigger than her last one, and ruffled Kohaku's hair again.

"Ah, I forgot! I left my backpack in the car."

"Here." Kagome handed Kohaku the keys and the boy took off to Kagome's car. As soon as he reached the silver Malibu and unlocked the doors, he bent in and grabbed his green Jansport when he noticed something lying on the passenger's seat. It was a dark black side bag with many key chains hanging randomly and little things sewn on.

Shutting the side door, Kohaku opened to the passenger door and grabbed the bag and nearly dropped it due to the weight. What was in here? Bricks? Looking around to see if anyone was around (if anyone _was_ around it would have made him look even more suspicious). He flipped the top open and was shocked to see all the junk, papers, and other things that were mashed into the bag. He dug his hand into the bag; no doubt about it, this was definitely that crazy girl's bag.

What shocked and scared Kohaku the most was when his hand brushed against the cold metal of something. Pulling it slowly, his eye's widened; in his hand he was holding a Smith & Wesson. It had to be a toy. But…the way it felt and looked, it was just too real to be fake.

Kohaku's hand dropped to his side along with the gun.

Just who was that girl?

* * *

"Jesus, lil dog-monkey, you didn't have to get that mad. I was only joking. Can't take a joke can ya?"

"Oh, shut the fuck up. AND DON'T CALL ME DOG-MONKEY!" Flarenii shouted, giving Hiroshi another whap on the arm. That was a mistake, as soon as her arm moved her ass bone started giving her some major pain.

"Hey, watch it! I'm driving, brat!" The blonde-haired waiter shouted, trying to correct the slightly old and beat-up Nissan.

"Like you have a real driver's license!" Flarenii shouted back as she tried to get into a comfortable position in the seat.

Gold eyes took a glare at the Chinese girl before returning to the road. "So what were you doing screwing yourself over there?"

"Fuck it! How many times to I have to tell you? I WASN'T MASTURBATING, YOU SICK SONOVA BITCH!" Flarenii huffed and crossed her arms in front of her. "If the bumblebee head really wants to know, I was kicked out of the car, okay?"

Hiroshi looked at her questioningly out of the corner of his eye. "Kicked outta the car? Whose car?"

"Someone you don't know." Flarenii answered, looking out the passenger window. "Anyway, just drop me off at Lame-ass's place."

Hiroshi settled back into his seat more. "Itachio's place? You know he's still a lil pissed. Well, as pissed as that ice-block can get. I swear, if it weren't for that one guy…Sessho-what's-his-name; you know the one that tipped me like fifty bucks, I would say that Itachio was the biggest ice-block on the face of the entire stinkin' planet."

"Damn right."

The two were silent for a minute before Hiroshi spoke up, his voice oddly serious. "You, uh, know that _that_ institute or whatever called in today at the restaurant."

Flarenii's dark brown eyes bolted over to stare at the blonde. "So, what'd they say?"

Hiroshi shrugged. "They wouldn't tell me. They said they were looking for Itachio."

"Wouldn't they call his house or his cell?" Flarenii asked, all her former anger gone.

"Yeah, like he'll ever decide to answer his friggin cell for once." Hiroshi replied.

Flarenii rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well that's beside the point."

Hiroshi turned and grinned at her. "And guess what else they told me, kid."

"What?"

Still grinning, the blonde returned his gold eyes to the road. "He didn't answer his house phone or his cell phone. And they tried a couple of times too."

Hiroshi's car pulled up next to the curb, right behind Kagome's car, and the blonde kept his eyes straight ahead, as did Flarenii.

"Anyways, just tell Itachio that he's behind on his payments."

Flarenii stepped out of the car without a word; her hand reached up and massaged her neck. _Right._

Standing there in that same spot, stock-still for maybe about twenty seconds, the boy shoved the Smith & Wesson back into the bowels of the bag and slammed Kagome's door shut, locking it hastily, and ran back into the apartments. Maybe he should tell them about the gun. Nah, 'cause then maybe Kagome might have a panic attack and call the cops. Then, the cops will come and start questioning everybody.

No, he'll hide the gun deep into the bag where they won't find it.

Stopping right outside Kaede's door, Kohaku's hand reached for the doorknob, the voices of the people inside drifting towards his ears. He let his hand drop before opening the side bag again. His eyes scanned the interior of the messy bag and stuffed the gun underneath some junk and a wrapped piece of foil paper that smelled suspiciously like old pizza. Ew.

Nobody really noticed much when Kohaku came back in and walked into the living room. Shippo and Rin were playing Candy Land on the floor next to the coffee table where the Kaede, Kagome, and Sango were sipping tea and talking quietly.

Sango looked up to see her brother's uneasy expression. "Is something wrong, Kohaku?"

The boy's eyes were serious and somewhat afraid as he said not a word and dropped the bag on the table.

"This isn't your backpack," Kagome pointed out, setting her tea cup down and reaching for the backpack, but stopping halfway. "What's that smell?"

"I believe that would be old pizza," Kaede replied without looking up from her tea.

"…okay…"

Kohaku swallowed. "I think this might be Ms. Joming's." Being the polite boy as always, his eyes looked over at Kagome, who was supporting a guilty look.

"Oops. I must've forgotten to throw it out after her."

Sango looked at Kagome, confused. "Throw it out?"

Kagome quickly shook her head, all the while laughing nervously. "Oh, heh heh heh, don't worry 'bout it. Forget what I said!"

"M-maybe we should call her to let her know that we have her bag." Kohaku stuttered out, avoiding the women's eyes.

"Kohaku, is there something ye would like to share with us?" Kaede inquired.

Kohaku shook his head vehemently. "No…"

Sango and Kagome shared a disbelieving look before Kagome cautiously placed the bag in front of her and opened it, never know when something bad might come falling out. The more Kagome dug threw the contents, the worried look on her face grew.

At last Kagome gave up and told the others, "There's no contact information."

"Let me see." Sango started looking into the bag before with a grunt; she turned the bag upside down and emptied out all the junk onto the coffee table.

"Oh, my." Kaede remarked at the sight that laid before her. It looked as if somebody had dumped a garbage bag and all of its garbage on her table. Not to mention the slight greasy smell.

The two kids had stopped playing and were picking through the junk curiously.

"Look, Shippo, look!" Rin cried as she picked up an old photograph. The others gathered around the wrinkled picture.

The image was slightly ruined due the fact that it had been crushed at the bottom of the bag for so long, but they managed to make out some of the people in the photo.

The picture, as far as they could tell, had been taken outside a restaurant, quite fancy from the looks of it. On the far left was a young Chinese girl making an ugly face and sticking her thumb out at the camera, it was without a doubt a younger Flarenii. A silver-haired young man had his arm round her shoulder and was grinning at the picture and the other two people were unidentifiable, but it was sure that whoever in the middle of the picture was a girl and on the far right was a guy.

Kaede leaned in closer to inspect the picture of the young man. "My, this young man sure looks like Mr. Jaamaru."

"No."

The other five looked at Sango with surprised looks on their faces.

Sango kept her eyes on the man's face. There was no way that was the Itachio that lived across from her. "I highly doubt that's him, he doesn't smile like that."

When she looked up, she was met with embarrassment as Kagome smiled at her slyly and Kaede looked thoughtful, Kohaku was confuzzled and Rin was giggling. Shippo looked just as confused as Kohaku, but he returned to digging through the mess.

"Hey, I found a cell phone." Sure enough, the young boy held up a silver Samsung phone.

Sango leaned on her arm. "So even if we found a number, we couldn't have contacted her."

"Maybe we should call her house and let her parents know. Provided that they don't think we _stole _her backpack or anything." Kagome said, reaching for the cell phone and planning to search through the phone's address book.

Suddenly, something caught the eye of Kohaku as he reached a hand for a plain looking notebook. After he opened the cover, his eyes reached Bambi-size and he held out the notebook in front of Sango. "Maybe, you should look at this, Sister."

This time everybody gathered around Sango as she took the book from her younger brother. The first few pages were either blank, doodled on, or scribbled on hastily. Sango flipped through the pages and she could feel something going on. After a few more blank pages, there were pictures of other young, rather cute-looking women, and little fragments of information about them. Looking at it was just adding fuel to the mystery.

"I wonder if she's some kind of stalker." Kagome thought out loud as her eyes followed the pages.

What had shocked Sango the most that she almost dropped the notebook was she came to a page that a picture clipped out from a newspaper glued to the page. It was taken a few years ago when Kikyo's café won the annual "Best Café Award" and the photographer asked to take pictures of all the employees standing together. There was Kikyo in the middle and Sango, Koharu, Momiji, and Botan standing on either side of her.

After turning another page, Sango snapped the book shut surprising the others.

"Is something wrong?" Kaede asked.

Just that moment, Kirara, who had been napping peacefully and unnoticeably underneath the coffee table, suddenly bolted out next to Shippo, knocking the young boy over.

Sango stood up quickly when Kirara ran toward the apartment room door and started growling softly.

Outside, the dog-monkey had come to collect what was hers.

**End Chapter 12

* * *

**

Finally done with another chapter, please don't hate me. Things kept on coming up and up, so yeah. But, hey, at least I updated right? Right? Right? Right? …Please read and review. (Flames welcome.)


	13. Chapter 13:Halloweeners

**Disclaimer: Maybe I should stop putting one of these every chapter…I don't own Inuyasha.**

Thank you, thank you KiT and Ile 'cuz you two really make me feel special. (sob) This is, like, the happiest day of my life, like, ever.

Anyway, trying to get chapter 13 out sooner, but I don't think I'll be successful with that…So, here it is, the long-awaited chapter 13! You guys have been waiting for it right?

* * *

**Chapter 13: Halloween-ers**

As Flarenii made her way into the Feudal Village Apartment complex, one of the first things that went through her trash-filled head was, Man, do the people living here have no holiday spirit or what? Halloween was like the best holiday of the year! (Next to Christmas and her birthday of course, and the last time she checked, her birthday is coming up. Yes!) Sure there were times where kids get molested when out trick-or-treating alone, but that's never happened in her neighborhood. Plus, you can't forget the usual little pieces of shit that crazy assholes stick in the candy. But, hey, it's all free right?

It was roughly around four in the afternoon and she could see some of the children that lived in the apartment out in the park across the street playing. A couple of them she knew, and hated, while others she just randomly saw on her visits to Lame-ass's place.

Walking up the steps, she was about to go down the hall and up the stairs to the second floor of the complex where Itachio and Sango lived when she heard a noise from the first room. She had no idea who lived in there, but from the sign posted next to the door, she deduced that it was the landlady's room.

Flarenii herself had met the old (and what she thought was somewhat bitchy, in an old-lady way) woman two times. The first time was when she and Itachio were driving around town looking for a place. Flarenii grimaced visibly as she walked over to the first room, if he wasn't such a damn obsessive freak about keeping **_her_** alive, he wouldn't have been behind on his rents at his old place and then he wouldn't have been kicked out.

The girl on purposely stomped down her next step, she was getting mad over damn stupid things. Never mind the second time…

Soon, Flarenii stood in front of the landlady's door. The polite thing would be to knock, but the Chinese girl wasn't great with her manners; plus they stole her side bag. But she didn't want to barge in just in case that **bitch** and the three twerps weren't in there.

Kohaku gulped nervously as his amber eyes looked around in a triangle. He looked from the notebook that his sister was holding, the door that Kirara was crouched in front of (most likely where Flarenii is) and to the barrel of the gun that lay underneath all the piles of junk. Fortunately nobody had noticed the shiny barrel of the Smith & Wesson, but Rin or Shippo could just as easily come across it like they did with Flarenii's cell phone. He looked back at his sister, who had the moment kept a blank face on and was looking at the door like everybody else.

Kirara gave another soft growl and scurrying back to Sango. He saw his sister bend down and scoop up the feline right before someone knocked on the door.

"Um, I'll get it." Kagome said after a moments silence and the second knock.

With a soft click, the front door opened and the person standing there was not who they expected.

"Blah, Kaede, here's your mail. Have a nice day!" The dork-ish mailman called in his too-short mailman shorts before taking off his hat in greeting and leaving.

Kagome sighed and muttered something that sounded like, "It was just the mailman…"

Just as she was about to close the door, a foot wedged itself between the door and the doorpost.

"Hold the phooooone!"

Kohaku gulped, here she comes now…

Kagome was pushed back roughly as the girl kicked the door open with her other foot, with more strength that her thin form suggested. The girl strode in with a high frown and brows furrowed in what looked like a pissed expression.

While Rin and Shippo scurried out of Flarenii's path to help Kagome up, Sango and Kaede stayed where they were and Kohaku stood still as the Chinese girl brushed past him roughly.

She stopped short in front on the other side of the coffee table in across Sango. "What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing. With. My. Stuff?" Without giving Sango enough time she answered, Flarenii bellowed. "I SAID, DAMN IT, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH MY FUCKEN STUFF? DOES IT LOOK LIKE IT'S ON DISPLAY OR SOMETHING! YOU FUCKERS, YOU'LL BE LUCKY ENOUGH IF I DON'T CALL THE DAMN COPS ON YOU FOR FUCKING JACKING MY SHIT!"

Kaede's eyes were wide in shock at the girl's foul language while everybody else in the room remained silent.

Sango was silent as she stared back at the girl with her light brown eyes. Without another word, Sango held up the notebook in front of Flarenii and quietly asked, "What is this about?"

Flarenii looked as if Sango had never spoken and continued screeching, her voice bouncing off walls and breaking ears. (Not literally!) "IT'S NOT LIKE IT'S ANY OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS! JUST GIVIT BACK!" With her hands outstretched, Flarenii made for a grab at the notebook in Sango's hands.

Sango quickly pulled it back towards her and the only thing Flarenii grabbed was air. The girl swore louder in anger. "FUCK!"

_She looks really, really, really mad. Maybe, Sister should stop this…_Kohaku took a step towards the bitch match with all intent on stopping. If someone else heard their screaming, they might think it was something else going on and call the police. They can't have that. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Kaede attempting to do the same thing.

However, the landlady's voice was cut off when Flarenii made another failed attempt at snatching her notebook and her arm came crashing down on her pile of junk, scattering a few sheets of paper before the pile shifted and a couple of books were about to uncover the gun. He had to act now; Kohaku quickly grabbed the books and stacked them atop the gun before anything was revealed.

Great, now he was between his sister and Flarenii. This isn't a good place to be, but… "Uh, maybe you two should stop arguing. You might be disturbing some of the neighbors."

At this, Kagome walked over and laid a hand on Flarenii's shoulder. "Um…Flarenii, we're sorry for looking through your stuff and I'm really sorry for not…um…throwing your backpack after you."

Flarenii still looked like she was fuming, but she seemed to have calmed down a little. How little that was. The girl stuck her nose high up in the air. "Hm! Sorry doesn't fucking cover the medical bill."

Kagome was lost. "What?"

Flarenii's glare raised another two levels of intensity. "I broke my ass on the cement sidewalk!" She pointed to her rear.

Everybody rolled a sweat-drop down their head at that comment. I mean, really…

"Anyway," Flarenii said after a moment of awkward silence. (There has to be an awkward silence when someone says they have a broken ass, right?) The girl coughed into her fist. "I came for my stuff." Her voice was a little scratchy from all that yelling, but she yells most of the time so, no biggy.

Somehow or another, with one sweep of her arm Flarenii had managed to stuff her things into her bag just as disorganized as it was on the table. She closed the flap before anyone could catch sight of the Smith & Wesson that lay on top of it all.

With another cough, as if she was trying to be polite and formal, she reached out her hand in front of Sango. "My notebook?"

"Not if you don't tell me what _this_,"-she shook the notebook in front of the girl's face- "is all about."

The Chinese girl growled audibly and made strangling motions in the air before taking a deep breath. "Wooooossssssaaaaaaaahhhhhhh…."

Kohaku looked at the strange girl to Shippo, who made swirly, "she's-crazy" motions next to his head while rolling his eyes. Rin giggled, but nobody noticed the three kids exchanging motions.

Kagome, now standing next to the landlady; and Kaede seem to have absolutely no idea what the two brown-eyed girls are talking about. But then again, who does?

"Sango, would you mind telling us what was in the-"

"Don't you **EVEN** dare!" Flarenii seethed, fists clenched. They have looked through enough of her shit, damn it!

Sango looked like she was considering telling the two other women what was in the notebook: pictures and profiles of various young and cute-looking women. Wait a sec…Flarenii couldn't be some kind of porno-mag journalist, could she? She's got the tainted mind and the foul language. Hmmm, really makes you think about it.

"Okay, okay, fine. But not now. Don't worry, I can explain everything." Flarenii said, adding a bitchy-business-like smile. She hadn't used that one in quite a while.

The look on Sango's face would have been read, "Yeah, right. And I'm supposed to take your word for it? Fuck off."

"Look, I swear to God! To Buddha! To...tah…"

"Allah?" Kohaku offered.

"Yeah! Allah. Whoever the fuck he is…" Flarenii said.

After the other occupants in the room gave him strange looks, the boy nervously shrugged. "I, uh, learned that in class today?"

"How am I supposed to believe you? For all I know, they could be a list of people you're conning."

Ooh, 'they'. Kaede and Kagome made a mental note of that, maybe they could find out what Sango and Flarenii were talking about. Meanwhile, Kohaku and Shippo thought, "She's not serious is she? Conning?" They know the girl's bitchy enough, but to mess around like that. Dude. And Rin thought, well, what she usually thinks in awkward cases like these. "Big brother Sesshomaru is treating me to ice-cream when I go home!"

Flarenii scratched her chin and her finger unconsciously made its way near her nose, but the girl caught herself in time and quickly shoved her hand into her jacket pocket. "How's 'bout this? Halloween's coming up in a few days, so I'll go to your place when Lame-ass takes me out to trick-or-treat."

Lame-ass? Sango pondered that one; maybe the girl had a nickname for her too.

"Fine." Sango tossed the notebook into Flarenii's arms.

"You're giving it back to her?" Kohaku asked her sister, watching as the girl stuffed her treasured notebook back into her bag and preparing to leave. "What if she doesn't keep her promise?"

"She will." Sango answered, though she was pretty sure Kohaku was right. Then again, she could always ask Itachio, if he knew what the list of names and profiles were for. But then again, Hiroshima might know. I mean, come on, he's a women-maniac. He could probably tell the personality of a girl by looking at what type of panties she wears. Shudders.

Just as she was about to leave, Flarenii hastily turned around and looked back at Sango and Kaede. "Oh, and speaking of Halloween, aren't you going to decorate the dump? It's only like two days away and this place is bare." Flarenii shook her head, not waiting for an answer and closed the door, humming something that sounded like Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

As soon as she closed the door, the girl broke off into a room heading for the second floor of the apartment complex. She didn't stop when she ran onto the stairs and crushed a little boy's toy fire truck; she didn't stop when she nearly ran over an old lady and her husband. She stopped when she was standing in front of a bleary looking door with the numbers 2B in bold, italicized writing.

Taking a deep breath and massaging her some-what sore neck, the girl pounded the door making a heavy thudding sound. "Hey, Lame-ass! Open up, it's me!"

There were no sounds coming from the room. Nothing: no creaks of someone walking across the floor, no sound of water running.

But she knew he was here. In a way, she knew everything about him. She was the one that found him this apartment anyway. Hiroshima had once described it as a master-slave relationship and Flarenii scoffed at him. What did he know? He was a pompous, dramatic, womanizer. At least, that's how Itachio described him…

* * *

"_Hey, you said you had an older brother right? What's he like? Is he a fucking idiot like you?" The girl snickered as she helped herself to some ice-cream._

"_My brother is…a pompous, dramatic, womanizing bastard," He stated, holding his ice-cream cone in front of him, "I don't really like him." He added, sticking the ice-cream into his mouth until his lips were around the cone._

"_Dude, you're going to fucking suffocate like that." The girl looked at him, surprised he could shove all that into his mouth._

_He shrugged._

_She laughed, hysterically._

People change.

* * *

"I know you're in there!"

Still no sound. With each passing second of standing outside, the young girl grew more impatient and soon taken to kicking the door.

"If you don't open the door I'll stick a stink bomb into your mail flap!" Flarenii threatened. "I'm fucken serious, damn it!" She added.

When all else failed, the girl threw her arms in the air wildly and screamed, "Fine! Ignore me!" She turned around and was about to stomp off when the door slowly fell back, open. Standing in the shadows and away from the light of the hallway, was a paler and thinner looking Itachio. There were bags of shadows underneath his silver eyes.

Scratching his forearm, he leaned against the door with his baggy and old white t-shirt to allow the girl entrance.

Flarenii stepped into the room as he closed the door softly behind her. She wrinkled her nose; the place had the stale smell of a room that had been completely shut off from the outside air for a few days.

The girl stepped into the kitchen and sat down on one of the chairs, her expression changing into a frown as she realized she sat on something oozy. Not good. But the good part was that the soft shit or whatever the hell it was made the hard seat comfortable for her to sit on.

He spoke in the quiet apartment room. His voice was cracked and he sounded as if his nasals were plugged. A cold? "What're you doing here."

"No reason." She replied nonchalantly, wiping a fingertip-full of dust away from the kitchen counter. "Dude, you should, like, friggin clean out this dump once in a while. Lookit that." She held out her finger in front of him.

Itachio shrugged, scratched his wild silver hair and pulled out another seat and sat next to the girl. "I've been at the institute for a few days. Just got back earlier this morning 'cause the white coats there kicked me out for staying too long. I think they're mad." Right, like dust accumulates in a house after four days.

Unconsciously, Flarenii's dark-brown eyes zoned in on the calendar that hanged on the refrigerator. _That means that Lame-ass stayed there for four days straight. Dumbass. _"Oh, Hiroshi told to tell you that the institute called the restaurant when you weren't there 'cause you weren't picking up your phone here. What the fuck, man?"

Itachio tapped the counter and didn't reply.

Flarenii gave a huge sigh and leaned on her arm. "What the fuck, indeed. You said that you were at the institute for the last four days, but they went through the trouble of calling your house when they could've just waltzed into Issa's room and tell you that you're behind on your payments. Life support isn't cheap, ya know."

Itachio's hand on the counter tightened into a fist, his paleness showing in the dim lighting of the apartment room. "Don't say her name." Ice bit into his words. "I know I didn't pay for last month."

"And you know that you didn't go see her this twenty-fifth." Flarenii stated.

"I did." His voice was louder than it normally was. "Okay, you win. I only visited for a few hours, but then I left before Kinko and Shima could see me."

Flarenii was surprised, she arched an eyebrow. "Shima brought Kinko with him? Hn, that's a new one."

The two stayed silent for a while, Flarenii occasionally reaching up to touch her neck.

"Hey, that means you're still going to drive me around for Halloween right?"

"Unn…"

"Che, don't gimme, 'Unn'. You **are** going to drive me around for Halloween. Besides, you owe me one."

"What. Since when."

"Don't pretend, Lame-ass." Flarenii reached up to her shirt collar and pulled it down slightly, revealing the small bruise. "Look at it! It looks like a fucken hickey!" Flarenii sighed, closing her eyes before opening them again into a furious glare, "That sonova bitch Hakudoushi just had point it out to everyone that 'Oh, look, the dog-monkey has a hickey.' I'll kill him! And that other day…"

The girl's ranting was not heard to the quiet man.

Friend? Hell no did she treat him with the proper respect one would feel for a friend. More like slave-driver. She would order him around and tell him how to live his life. So annoying that at times Itachio felt a growing urge to just up with it and pop her scrawny little neck.

Mother. Maybe she was like an annoying bitch of a mother. At the thought of that, Itachio lowered his eyes onto the dust that laid on his countertop. The Jaamaru's didn't really have loving, family moments with their mother. As much as he hated his brother Hiroshima, the pompous, dramatic, womanizing bastard had taken his younger siblings by the hand and helped them live a happier childhood and given them his brotherly love to replace the motherly love that their own blood mother would not give them.

Yes, Hiroshima certainly takes brotherly love to the extreme, almost to the point where Itachio wants to pop his neck as well.

"…and I just stood up and told him to 'Stuff it!' And all that pretty-boy gay bastard did was gimme that damn fucking smirk of his and say another smart-ass aleck, and then I-"

"I'm sorry."

"What? I didn't hear you!"

Pft. Big surprise there.

"I'm sorry."

"Che, freak."

"Sorry."

"…"

After the loud girl had left, Shippo and Rin had resumed to their playing while Kaede sat sipping her tea. Kohaku was staring at the ground while Kagome looked at her best friend questionably. Sango hadn't said anything ever since Flarenii left. Strange.

"Sango?" Kagome tapped her best friend's shoulder while Kirara, who was bored, jumped into the raven girl's arms and started playing around with her necklace.

Suddenly, Sango sat down and pulled something out of her back pocket. Kohaku's eyes widened. "Sister, that's…"

"What is it?" Kagome asked as she tried to make out what it was.

Sango held out several pieces of crumpled paper in her hands and placed them on the coffee table, trying unsuccessfully to smooth out the first sheet of paper. The girl turned to look at Kagome. "I kept some of the papers with me. I wanted to know…" _…what all those pictures were about._ Sango continue silently.

"Eh…" Kagome looked over at Kohaku. The boy proved to be just as confused as she was. "Know what?"

Sango remained quiet as she reached into her back pocket again and pulled out that mysterious photograph that Rin had found. Kagome took the picture from her friend's hands and examined the picture in front of her eyes with Kohaku crouched behind her trying to get a look. It definitely showed a younger Flarenii and one of the Jaamaru's with her. The other two were unidentifiable due to all the scratches and the number of times it had been wrinkled and the corner looked like it had been torn off. Ouch.

Kohaku leaned further and pointed to the Chinese girl. "That looks like Miss Flarenii."

"Yeah," Kagome agreed, while her eyes were focused on the silver-haired man. Just who was he? She had met only one of them, Hiroshima Jaamaru, the waiter at Dark Horizon that had flirted with her and taken their orders. As much info as she had heard about Itachio Jaamaru, she still had not met face to face with him yet. Hmmm, maybe she should set up a meeting…

But, Kagome turned to look at her best friend sorting out the papers, her face covered with worry. Whatever it was, it seemed that Sango was greatly troubled by it. Maybe it was the notebook…

"Okay." Kohaku and Kagome looked over at Sango who had announced that she was done sorting out the papers.

"I'm not really sure what these are, but the rest look like homework and class notes." Sango stated, pointing to a scribbled and doodled on paper.

"Literature," Kohaku remarked.

Kagome giggled. "Doesn't look like she's too good at it." Just like she said, there was a bright red "**F**" marked on top of the paper as well as a "**SEE AFTER CLASS**".

Kagome reached over and picked up one of the sheets that looked like homework before turning it around to examine the back. She frowned. "Sango, this has your work schedule written on it."

"What." Sango quickly took the paper from her friend and without a doubt; her work schedule at the Miko's Internet Café was scrawled in ink in a highly messy fashion. If human eyes were like mood rings, hers would be screaming "PISSED!" That little bitch was stalking her!

While Sango spent about a minute in outrage, Kagome reached over and pulled the pile of paper that Sango wasn't sure what it was in front of her. _This looks interesting._ The first few pages had nothing written on it except one word in the center of each page. The first page was 'Issa', the next was 'Abi', and the last one was 'Sandy'. The last page looked like a get-well card. Whoever it was for it didn't say, just a message in Flarenii's messy handwriting saying: "Get well, bitch. Love, Flarenii."

Kagome sighed heavily; _this is starting to turn into some kind of cheesy mystery story._

Damn right, girl.

After thanking Kaede for the tea, the elderly lady smiled and replied that anytime was no problem for her. While Kagome took Shippo and Rin home, Kohaku went with Sango and Kirara to her room to stay until Sango took him home.

While Sango showered and Kohaku helped himself to some of the things in the kitchen, he couldn't help but think about his sister's strange reaction earlier.

As the boy brought the can of cold soda to his lips, he suddenly paused and instead, walked over to the small, round table that Sango had placed the papers on. Issa, Abi, Sandy. Who were they? The first two names were strange and unfamiliar to him, but Sandy was definitely more of a girl's name then a boy's name. (Even if there was a Sandy in his P.E. class.)

And… "Get well, bitch. Love, Flarenii." Who could that crazy girl had been writing a card to, and what for? Not that he was being nosy or anything, but his sister wanted to know, right? That's why she took these pages, right?

"Kohaku." The boy jumped at the sound of his name being called. He turned swiftly around to see his elder sister in a pink oversized t-shirt and baggy sweatpants with dripping wet hair.

Kohaku frowned. "Sister, you're going to get a cold like that."

Sango yawned lightly, "It's all right. I'm fine with it."

The boy's frown deepened. Clearly she hasn't been taking care of herself right. Sango walked over, her bare feet making a soft tapping sound, and sat across from him at the table.

She examined the papers before asking her brother, "What do you think these are?" She leaned on her arm, concentrating hard on the first name. "Names probably…" She answered herself.

Kohaku remained quiet, somewhat unsure of what to say now. He was confused and he's pretty sure everybody else was confused too. What did her sister know that he doesn't? Why won't she tell him? What was in the notebook? Why is she even bothering with this? So many questions on his little confused mind, Kohaku shook his head blank.

"S-sister?" He began uncertainly.

Sango looked up surprised. "Is something wrong, Kohaku? You don't look so well. Maybe you're sick." Sango reached a hand over to check his forehead temperature, but Kohaku stopped her with his hand.

"No, I'm. It's just…Are you?" Kohaku asked as Sango withdrew her hand and placed it with her other hand in front of her.

…_Are you?_

What could he have meant? Of course she was okay. What made it seem like anything was wrong? Okay, maybe something was bothering her, but so what? It wasn't such a big deal.

"Why…" Kohaku continued, "Are you bothering yourself with all this? Can't you tell me what it is?"

Sango was struck. Her little brother was worried over her investigation on the little matchmaker? The brown-haired girl gave him her biggest smile (which wasn't pretty big) and leaned over to ruffle his hair. Without another word, she got up and took Kohaku by the hand and led the even more confused boy to the small apartment living room.

"Let's not worry about the papers now and watch a movie. You know, a good older sister to younger brother moment." Sango sat Kohaku in front of the t.v. and went to her room to fetch some movies. _I'm sorry, Kohaku, but if you'll let me, I'd like to worry about this a little more by myself._

Sango looked over to her little brother. He had fallen asleep sometime during the second movie and was now resting his head against her shoulder breathing with his mouth slightly open. He always had a habit was sleeping with his mouth open and drooling ever since he was a child. Seems like he still held onto that bad habit even after she moved out of the house.

Sango smiled, he was sometimes a hassle to clean up after. Getting him home now would be a little bit more of a trouble, and besides, she didn't have a car.

Sango turned towards her front door when she heard it being knocked by someone. Checking her clock, Sango was confused as to who the fuck would be knocking on her door around eleven?

She gave her little brother one last look before carefully resting his head on a pillow on the sofa, she answered her front door and was more than surprised to see Itachio standing in front of her.

"…?" She didn't say anything; a confused look on her face was more vocal than her voice would be.

"Um…Flarenii told me your little brother was here and you don't have a car…" Itachio said, looking somewhere along the point over her shoulders.

"So? You came to ask if I needed a lift, right." Sango asked, giving him pointed look whereas deep down inside, she was absolutely livid that that little BIOTCH Flarenii was stalking her and knew as much about her like her work schedule! If some could be damned to hell on her cue, Flarenii would be the first on her list.

Itachio was a little uneasy. What if she said, "Ah, thanks, but no thanks. My little brother is staying the night with me." That would have been totally embarrassing, but she hadn't said that yet. He turned his head and glanced over at the dark corner down the hall where Flarenii was waiting for him to pick up Sango and her little brother so he could take Kohaku and her home.

Sango glanced over at the clock again. Walking home was definitely out of the question, and going to the bus stop down the block might not be safe either. Besides, Itachio was an idiot and there's no harm in having him drop Kohaku off, but she'll still be going with to make sure.

"Sure, why not." With that Sango closed the door on his face.

Um, okay…

After about a minute, she came back with Kohaku's arm around his shoulders. She herself had gotten some shoes on and a warm jacket. Sure it was still fall, but the nights were starting to get a little chilly.

Ah, shit. Sango just realized too late that Kohaku's backpack was still in Kagome's car. Kagome probably still hasn't realize that either. But it wasn't such a big deal, it was a Friday night. Kohaku'll have time to get his stuff back over the weekends.

"Here. I'll carry him." Itachio said.

And it was like that, with Sango walking next to him down the hall with Kohaku carried on Itachio's back. As soon as they rounded the corner, she saw the person that she despised the most at the moment: that little BIOTCH Flarenii standing there like she was some innocent little schoolgirl.

"About damn time! I was beginning to think that you two were, like, making-out or somethin'!" Flarenii said, none too gently.

Itachio and Sango looked the other way.

"Hmph!" Flarenii stood up from leaning against the wall and started walking away.

Itachio followed her and Sango followed the two friends out into the parking lot and towards Itachio's truck.

Flarenii immediately went for the back seat and wasn't too pleased when Itachio seated the sleeping Kohaku next to her.

"Don't blame me if I kick him," Flarenii huffed.

Itachio rolled his eyes and slammed the door shut, making his way over to the driver's seat.

"Aren't you cold?"

He was caught off guard with that question. Looking down at what he was wearing, he just realized that he was wearing a thin t-shirt.

"No, not really."

The two said nothing else why Itachio drove into the streets.

The city was a strange one with no exact time. People came and hang out with friends at random times so it wasn't a surprise to see a large group of people outside a club one night and absolutely no one there the next.

"It's cold…" Sango shivered in her jacket. Itachio's truck was cold tonight. The last time he had given her a ride home, it was much warmer. Then again, she snuck a look at him, he didn't look well either: pale and tired-looking. Maybe he was sick?

After listening to Sango's directions, they pulled up into the Taijiya driveway. Sango once again pulled Kohaku's arm around her shoulders and refused for Itachio's help, saying that she would be staying for a while here and that he should go home.

As she walked up to the porch, Sango turned around, "I appreciate it, Itachio."

He nodded, rolling up his window, "No problem, dude."

He continued watching for the truck as she knocked on the door, and he didn't drive away until the last of the light out on the porch waned as Sango closed the door after her.

" 'No problem, dude.' That's it? Why couldn't you have said something better?" Flarenii asked, moving into the seat that Sango previously sat in. "This seat's warm." She commented it was relief for her still aching ass.

_Yep, they're definitely a couple.

* * *

_

In the morning, Sango's father dropped her off back at the apartments and the brown-haired girl walked up towards her room still feeling full from all the crap her mother had fed her. She smiled; it was good to eat with family.

Her father had dropped her off back at the apartments early in the morning-Sango forgot Kirara at the house when she took Kohaku back home. She was sure that the cat wouldn't be happy with her. Most likely scratch the shit out of her face…

As soon as she walked through the door, a large puff of fur was thrown at her face and Sango of all things, FUCKEN SQUEALED. Okay, now that was bad. Being a depress-o-atic for the last four years and all of a sudden squealing?

"Kirara, it's okay. It's just me." Sango said, holding Kirara out at arm's length. Was it just her, or did Kirara's claws need a manicure. Sango sighed; she had too many things on her mind already.

Sango walked past the kitchen towards her room when something caught her eye. She had one unheard message on her answering machine. The number meant that it was Kagome.

"_You have one new message sent at 1:37 A.M."_

Sango blinked, why the hell would Kagome be calling her at that time?

"_Hey, Sango…Just called to talk to you…"_ Kagome sounded like she had a cold, and was that just a sniff she heard?

"_This is sort of sudden, but Inuyasha called off the Las Vegas trip at the last minute. I can imagine what Kikyo would do; I still haven't told her about it yet. But-"_ Here another sniff. _"Even if you weren't planning on going, just thought that you might want to know. I can't believe he blew as off for a family reunion in Alaska…Bye."_

There was a loud click; she must have slammed the phone down.

Sango looked down at the phone in her hands, sort of sadly. They must have been shouting at each other again. Inuyasha really did it to make Kagome cry like that. At least Miroku never…

Damn, she had finally gotten over thinking about him to putting all his pictures in the house away. Guess that really didn't help. She was so used to looking over to her lamp top to see a picture of his beaming smile looking back at her. The only thing there now was a line free of dust.

Glancing at her alarm clock, Sango realized that she would have to leave for work in a few hours. Maybe she should tell Kikyo about the trip being off and all…

Or not.

"I can't believe it!" Kikyo screeched, slamming her fist down onto the counter. "I was looking forward to slot machines and cute black-jack dealers for months, but no-o-o-o; somebody just had to call me at five in the morning to tell me that that little sonova- Sorry, we ran out of bagels. We still have the buttered croissants if you'd like…You welcome…That little sonova bitch called off the trip and to make matters worst, Suikotsu won't have time to see me for the next two weeks. If those damn co-workers of his are getting sick all the time, then we need new doctors pronto!"

Koharu was hiding behind a serving platter and Momiji and Botan were hugging each other in fear. Sango blinked. Funny, didn't Kikyo usually have totally OC emotional breakdowns around four in the afternoon?

The next time Sango glanced at the clock, it read 3:30 P.M. Time flies when you're bored off your ass.

In about the next two seconds, she felt totally different.

"Hey, Sandy! Finally found you, I totally fergot your work shifts and I couldn't find my info for a while, but fuck! You look friggin' pale!" Flarenii called loudly and bluntly, as she stepped through the front door.

Sango's first instinct was to hoist the girl up off her feet and throw her out into the street head first; hopefully get runned over, but that would look bad in front of the other customers. Suck it up, suck it up…

When Sango said nothing, Flarenii frowned and walked up to the counter and continued speaking. "Well, anyway I came to invite you to go Trick-or-Treating with us." Flarenii took a seat on a bar stool and started spinning around on it. "You can bring your lil' bro and all your little friends if you wanna, but just make sure I don't see that brat with the orange hair and that bitch, Ayame…Gome…whatever her name is."

Sango wiped the counter with a rag and replied, "No, I'm too old for that kind of stuff."

_Liar, you used to dress up and go the whole shebang when Miroku was still here._

Flarenii's tough-guy-ordering-you-around attitude dissipated (A/N: Not sure if I'm using it right…), "What? B-but I would look like a total loser with Lame-ass chaperoning me!"

Hearing that, Sango felt a sense of déjà vu surround her.

* * *

"_There's nothing to laugh about." Sango replied. "You can tell my blind date that I'm not interested."_

_Flarenii, at least that's what the name she told Sango, visibly deflated. Confidence and all. "B-but…my friend needs a date. I mean he's a total loser without a girl! And I already promised him that I'll find someone just like him! Please…eh…Sorry didn't catch your name."_

_Flarenii was already starting a business with her and she didn't even know her client's name yet? Business people these days only remember the amount of money that the client owes them. "Sango."_

"_So, Sango, how 'bout it. It's only one night, and if you think he's not your tight, which I seriously doubt since you guys both have this stuck up look and shit…cough, you can kick him in the balls and be on your way. Not to mention we won't ever bother you again." Flarenii flashed her a it's-fool-proof smile.

* * *

_

Flarenii: the annoying little cupid-girl with the weird clothes and a bitchy attitude and her strange brace-filled smiles. Makes you wonder why she's like that.

Sango sighed, even if Itachio was there and even if you get free candy, she wasn't really up for it. Wait? Did she just fucken say that Itachio would be there? Oh, god.

"Fine, just don't pull me into anything stupid."

From the smile on her face, Sango knew she gave the girl an idea.

"Of course. It's Halloweener's Time!"

Oh, fuck.

**End Chapter

* * *

**

Longest chapter in this story for the time being. Eh, sorry for the long update this time. I kept trying to put things off in hopes that it'll sound better. Review please! (Flames welcome.)


	14. Chapter 14:Pouring Rain Part I

**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but I do own bologna. It's my bologna I tell you…**

Hello, I'm back (finally) with chapter 14 and I noticed that two or three of you guys (KiT and sakuryn, I didn't spell it right did I?) said that my swear rate was going up. Maybe I was going a little overboard and I apologize for that. I was sort of in a pissy mood and I had no idea what my fingers were typing; so…yeah. And….yeah, can't remember what else to say…

* * *

**Chapter 14: Pouring Rain Part I**

Sango had no idea what was coming for her. No, she wasn't expecting anyone at her door at SIX. IN. THE. MORNING. Freakin' SIX IN THE MORNING, for crying out loud! She had gone to bed late and it was still an early Sunday morning. Sango wanted nothing more than to go back to bed, pull her covers up and tell whoever was knocking to go fuck off.

Sango yawned loudly as she made her way across her apartment room…in a flowy pink sort of sleep wear while scratching in such an unladylike way that Kirara had to hide behind her paws when Sango stumbled past her. Sango is NOT a morning person as you can tell. Waking up early puts Sango in an extremely agitated and bitchy mood.

Too bad for Flarenii that she didn't know about that.

_KNOCK! KNOCK!_

Flarenii was asking for a death wish the way she was pounding on the door. You'd swear someone was kicking it rather than knocking.

"God! When's she gonna open the stupid door!" The annoyed girl flipped open her cell phone to check the time and gave another loud knock.

There was a muffled, tired sounding reply from the other side of the door. "Coming…"

Flarenii scowled, "About damn time…" And she just stood there waiting for the door to open up.

As soon as Sango opened up the door, Flarenii grinned up at Sango in her unique brace-filled business woman smile, and…

Sango slammed the door on her face.

She had woken up that early, walked across her room just to open up her door to that little piece of dog-crap-eaten-by-another-dog-and-crapped-out-again-it wasn't worth staying around to hear what she had to say.

"Gerdamit…" Due to the fact that Sango had shut her out like that, Flarenii's annoying chart just went up another two notches. "And what did I ever do to annoy her?"

Yes, we all wonder, dear Flarenii, we all wonder.

It was another fifteen minutes full of loud raucous door pounding and maybe two seconds of yelling before Sango finally opened up again to shut the dumb girl up.

"What…is it that you want?" Sango asked, holding back another right hook. Hell, if she gave a grown man, Itachio a cold sucker to the face than maybe she could punch this brat's face right off and smack into the pavement.

Flarenii, finally seeing that Sango wasn't exactly a morning person, took a step back and looked up at Sango with a sort of a, "Mommy, I'm scared." expression on her face. "Um, yeah…You know how I invited to go trick-or-treating with us? Well,"-she grinned like the devil-"we need to pick out a costume for you."

Where in the heavens did that come from? Costumes? Wait, she wasn't going to seriously dress up, was she? That would be bad- really, really bad. Sango couldn't remember the last time she ever wore a costume. Okay, maybe she did, but that part right there was sort of an expression type of thing…so yeah.

Sango stifled a yawn, there was no way she'll ever have herself vulnerable in front of Flarenii. "I could go get my costume later. Besides, it's still six in the morning."

"Six: twenty-seven A.M. to be precise." Flarenii corrected. "And you need all the time in the world to pick out the perfect costume so hurry the hell the up!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms out into the air.

Sango groaned, slammed the door (almost squashing Kirara in the process as the cat was standing in the doorway) marched back into her room, and changed into something suitable.

Sango followed the young girl out of the apartment complex ten minutes later. The early morning October day made her warm breath visible in front of her. Flarenii walked briskly next to her creating little puffs with each step.

Flarenii's dark brown eyes swam to her right. "Why are you bringing your stupid cat?"

Sango glared down at the young girl. "Because I can." Burn!

Flarenii scrunched up her face into a 'Chinese men's glare' before looking ahead of her to a dirty, old looking van. "Oh, what the hell. It's not like their car's going to get any crappy."

Sango was at first a little skeptic at the thought that that van was what she'll be riding in to find her Halloween costume. Stealing a quick glance at her wristwatch, Sango noticed that she only had about five and a half hours before she had to get to work. Wait, what the hell was she saying? Only five and a half hours? That's more than enough time to buy some silly costume. Flarenii's ideas are starting to pollute her mind.

Imagining herself as an older version of the bratty young girl was enough to make her gag.

And she did.

"What's with you?" Flarenii asked, sounding like she demanded Sango to answer. "You better not puke on me 'cause I won't be getting new clothes for another half year." She gave Sango an "I'm-warning-you-look."

Sango didn't say anything, but when she reached the van she was surprised. The same blond waiter from that fancy restaurant she and the gang went to a few weeks ago was sitting in the passenger seat. The girl sitting next to him driving the car she didn't know, but from where she was standing she could see the girl had inhumanly pale skin-a different type of pale from Flarenii and the Jaamarus. Jet black hair with a lusty gloss and dark eyes that you couldn't tell the color of- if it weren't for the look on her face she might have been considered a pretty attractive lady.

"The hell took you so long?" The girl yelled out of the car, bubble gum smacking.

Jesus, from the moment she opened her mouth, Sango realized that girl was the true grown-up version of Flarenii.

Sango opened her mouth to give a decent reply, but the young girl beat her to it.

Flarenii rolled her eyes and grabbed the side door, swinging it open with a bang and climbed in. "Preppy princess was taking her sweet time."

Sango totally denied that preppy statement, but she didn't say anything about it nor did she say anything about the interior of the car.

Trash: empty potato chip bags; beer bottles, some empty some not; newspapers dating back to the 80s; popcorn strewn on the ground; and amidst all of the other junk- was that a tampon?

Seeing the "I'm-not-sitting-in-here-look," on Sango's face, Flarenii sighed loudly like Sango was the one being annoying. "Just sit your arse down. It's perfectly clean."

Sango took a step in gingerly and closed the door. Yes, perfectly clean in a hobo's low standards. The inside of the car smelt like stale paper and the air coming from the heater sort of smelt like a bathroom with an un-flushed toilet. O.o

The smacking of gum could clearly be heard over the rushing of the heater. "Oi, we're going to old town to get your costume."

The blonde waiter she had recognized looked behind his seat at her and winked good-naturedly, "They've got all the good stuff; plus it's cheap."

"If it's so cheap there, why don't you buy a new car?" Flarenii asked, sounding like an irritable old lady.

The blonde's smiling face immediately changed to one of utter revolt as he muttered darkly, "That's where we got this piece of junk."

Flarenii smiled, "For how much?" She was clearly pushing him.

The blonde grouched before turning back to face the front with a completely sour look. "Like seventy-seven bucks. I knew a guy there and he gave us a deal."

Sango couldn't imagine a well-tipped and paid waiter from a fancy-pants restaurant having to buy something as low as that.

"Oh!" Flarenii exclaimed. "Fergot the introductions. Sandy, bumblebee-head's Hiroshi and the bitch is Hirunashi."

Sango didn't bother correcting Flarenii on her name. She was going to have to get used to it; even if she didn't like it one bit.

The brown-haired girl could tell why Flarenii referred Hiroshi as the 'bumblebee-head'. The man with the boyish face had blond hair, but his spikes were outlined with black. Sango shifted her gaze to Hirunashi. That was when she noticed half a bottle of Budweiser in the driver's cup holder.

Whoo boy, sitting a trash of a car with a brat, bumblebee and a gum-smacking driver under the influence was the best way to start out the morning.

They almost crashed into a telephonepole and narrowly missed running over a senior citizen trying to cross the even street roads on a rusty wheelchair.

Sango nearly jumped the car when they were pulled over by a police car. However, somehow Hirunashi managed to convince the officer that she was a completely sane woman that just happened to have a couple shots of Budweiser before driving.

(Actually she left that part out and said that the beer was Hiroshi's who was puking his guts out over the passenger window from the fear of losing his driver's license. Hirunashi isn't even certified. O.o.)

* * *

"Okay, we're here. Let's get our asses moving," Hirunashi slammed the door shut and Sango could have sworn that she heard something break. Flarenii closed the door just as roughly as Hirunashi had while Hiroshi was left on the side complaining about how getting a car these days was extremely hard. 

Sango dusted off her clothes and the grip on her purse strap tightened. This was known as the bad side of town.

Gangster symbols and shady looking characters littered the streets just as much as trash did. Hobos crowding around camp fires trying to warm themselves up from the cold morning, prostitutes standing around suspicious corners and alleyways, drug dealers standing outside every store- of course this analysis were made by a completely paranoid non-morning person.

Hirunashi lead the way to an old looking shop that had just been remodeled with a tattered white banner out on the front saying, 'New look; same great deals.' Some arrogant little punk had written in red sharpie, 'Pussy shop!'

Hirunashi rolled her eyes upon the sight of the sign. After a snap of her gum, she turned to the blonde waiter and said, "Take the sign off will ya? It pisses me off to think that some wuss has the nerve to call this place a pussy shop…"

Hiroshi shrugged in a way that clearly stated he probably wouldn't have cared if something even more vulgar had been scribbled on the banner. But, nevertheless, he reached up and tore the banner down, crumbling up and holding the door open for Flarenii and Sango.

Flarenii shook her head upon entering, and Sango wondered if her obvious annoyance was caused by the loud metal screaming from the several large speakers placed in several corners of the medium-sized shop.

Sango moved her eyes across the various items and accessories that hung on the wall nearest the door. Above it she could see the small red blinking light of a camera. She was impressed that even in this side of town people bothered to set up security systems.

"Even if she sometimes writes shit herself she doesn't like it when other people write stuff on her friends' stuff."

Sango hadn't expected Flarenii to be standing next to her. So that's why she was shaking her head. At first, the older girl didn't say anything. Surprised more than anything, really. Flarenii just suddenly upped and told her something without a)Sango asking her to or b)she was spewing crap.

"Are you two…?"

Flarenii beat her to the punch. "No, we're totally not sisters. We don't even look alike for one thing." The girl eyed her from under her black beanie. There was a rip justbeginning to form at the tip of the material just above her left eye...

Sango definitely denied that statement. Even if their hair color was different, and even if their eye color were different. There was this thing about their attitudes and their personality that seemed to make one think that Hirunashi and Flarenii were remotely related. Maybe something like sixth cousins.

Funny, Sango just realized something. Flarenii had just 'toned down' from all her cursing and swearing from the ride.

Another look told her that the young girl was looking green. Ah, she must have been feeling car sick. Flarenii's cheeks looked slightly puffed as if she was trying to hold something in. Sango couldn't blame her, she herself was on the edge of ripping open the door, whether the car was moving or not, and jump out for fresh air. For one thing the car was extremely stuffy and for another was all the junk in the car. That half moldy sandwich sitting by her foot had her eyeing it all trip long.

There was a loud raucous laughter coming from further in the shop. Flarenii headed off towards it, walking slowly as if trying to regain her equilibrium and Sango walked softly behind her. She was a stranger in this place and trying not to stand out was basically the best thing to do in this situation.

Upon coming into view were more clothes on racks for sale, some hanging on the way, Sango saw a display case similar to the one at Kinko's Trinkets and Accessories at the mall. Sango unconsciously fingered the necklace that Hiroshima had bought for her. Yin and Yang: two halves of a whole. It could mean many things.

Where was the strong woman that she used to be?

_She's not here anymore._

Why not?

_Because._

Because what?

_Because what!_

Is that all you have to say?

…_I don't know…_

In her half a second of space out-ness, Sango hadn't realized that there were actually two Hirunashis. Maybe she was seeing double from the nauseating ride.

No, she couldn't be because Flarenii was talking to both of the Hirunashis.

"Sana, can't you be more original? Like, you totally copied right off of Kinko, man!" Flarenii was leaning on the display case, looking at the many necklaces and other such things.

The second Hirnuashi, whom Sango realized after a minute was that she was shorter, definitely less thin, and younger, answered in a pissed voice. "Hey, hey, hey, gimme some credit here. I came up with the store name!"

"That isn't very much, is it?" A low, calm voice called out from behind the 'Employees Only' door behind the display case.

Sana, Hirunashi look alike, turned bright pink before a deep purple and yelled, "Just shut up, Taki! Jeez, you all just think Kinko's pussy shop is better, doncha?"

Hiroshi sounded hurt. "Heeeyyyyy…I think your shop is better." He was standing off next to a shelf displaying various caps with vulgar designs and languages.

"Hey, Sana, how much is the 'Bikini Man' worth?" Hiroshi asked, holding the cap out in front of him excitedly.

Hirunashi scowled in disgust.

Flarenii rolled her eyes.

"$14.99 plus tax." Sana replied.

"Fuck!" Hiroshi snapped and threw the hat roughly back onto the shelf.

"Don't mess up the hats, Hiroshi. I had to straighten them up just five minutes ago." A man in his early to mid twenties said, coming out of the 'Employees Only' room and stood next to Sana.

With this vivid orange and red tipped hair, he looked slightly like a fire cat gone slightly crazy with his feline looking eyes that don't look too slanted.

Flareniii opened her mouth, but Taki held up his hand to stop the girl. "Don't start with the introductions. I know you are going to say something about 'pussy' cats."

Flarenii gave him a deep glare and moved her lips and mock mimicking his words all the way whiletapping the glass display case with the urge of someone thinking killer thoughts about someone else.

Taki stared back indifferently at the Asian girl before moving his eyes over towards Sango. She could feel herself burn slightly under his gaze. He really was a good looking young man. Everything about him seemed to scream fire: from his vivid hair to his equally fiery eyes that hold many secrets behind.

If there was only one thing Sango would say at this moment, it would be: Itachio has strange friends.

"Excuse me?" Sango asked, just aware of the fact everybody was staring at her.

Somewhere behind her, Hiroshi was making kukoo signs.

Hirunashi scowled and shook her head.

Flarenii scowled.

Sana looked at Taki.

Taki cleared his throat. "I said, my name is Taki. Pleased to meet you, Ms. Sango."

Sango felt extremely embarrassed. Somebody that polite has to add a title to her name had to re-introduce himself just because she was staring at him for an extra ten seconds.

Damn, she needed fresh air.

"So," The Sana's voice, which by the voice sounded uncannily similar to Hirunashi's with maybe a higher pitch, bought her Sango's attention. "What can I do for you?"

Flarenii answered for her. "We're looking for a costume for her. Something to fit her blank look."

Sango blinked. Blank look? Flarenii was looking up at her with a 'What?' expression. Well, she couldn't exactly blame the Chinese girl. Kagome had once told her she was slightly like a plastic doll- somewhat hard to make smile. That doesn't make her expressionless. She did smile, cry, and even laugh sometimes. Sometimes meaning once every couple of weeks in Kagome's opinion.

"Nnn…" Sana cast a tired eye down her shop before pointing a black nail polished finger down an aisle of some interesting clothes of the extreme sort (heavy cleavage). "There, all the stuff on that rack should be about to fit you and if you're looking for something that'll go a little easy on your _rack_, check out the shelves. I remembered booking something for the shyer people right, Taki?"

The bright-haired man nodded his affirmative.

"C'mon." Flarenii elbowed her lightly and lead her down the direction that Sango pointed at.

Sango followed Flarenii without a word. This wasn't exactly her strong suit. Sango wasn't the type of girl to fawn over her clothing. She could care less what it was as long as fit her nicely, is comfortable, and covers various parts of her anatomy. None of which any of these articles here check out with her list.

"Um…isn't there something else-"

Loud raucous laughing came from the group over at the glass display case. Mainly coming from Hiroshi and Hirunashi, the four people were gathered around something and flipping through it roughly without a care. Wait a second, that brown leather bound notebook…

With a loud surprised gasp, Sango dug into her purse and searched its every pocket. Groping at every possible space hoping it wasn't what she was thinking.

She gaped at the group with her mouth slightly open in outrage. How could they? They…they j-just…

"Sandy…" Flarenii began almost warningly.

Sango ignored the girl and made her way over with a brisk stride.

The blonde looked up and gave her a grin that made her angrier. She had never felt more upset than the time with Itachio at the park that one night.

"Hey, Sango, maybe you shouldn't keep these kinda pictures with you. You never know what might happen." He flipped through the pages just to make his point.

Hirunashi laughed but smacked him. "Okay, that's enough. Put it back. It's bad enough you took that out of her purse without her noticing."

Hiroshi let out a tsk, tsk, tsk. "I was the high school pickpocket king remember. Old habits die hard even at a time like this. Which reminds me," He looked toward Sango with a look in his eye that made her want to kill him. She reached out to grab her things back but his arm blocked her.

"Playtex Gentle Glide? Funny, you strike me more as a Tampex girl." He sniggered, but that was the most sickening thing that she had ever heard. The more he kept his sneer on the more she hated it.

"Hiroshi!" Hirunashi called, motioning for him to stop-it wasn't funny anymore.

Her fists shook with rage at her sides as she kept her head down, unable to look back up with the extent of the humiliation that she had just felt. This type of thing only happened back when she was younger and still in school. The other kids made fun of her because she seemed the masculine type of girl that nobody seemed to want to date. Except for Miroku…

"And you might want to think twice before getting a picture with the words, "I heart Miroku" on the back, huh. Like I said, you'll never kn-!"

A loud, and painful groan escaped from the blonde's opened mouth. Nobody, girl or not, had kneed him there at his little pride spot for a long time. He doubled over only to be kneed in his face, successfully smacking the blood right out of his nose. Even before he hit the ground, Sango had grabbed the falling notebook and turned to storm out of the store.

Flarenii was standing right behind her. None of the others except Hirunashi had made a move to help the situation and the little girl was no exception. Her eyes formed into a menacing and ugly look, something that shouldn't be seen on a girl that young. "An eye for an eye. You found all the skeletons in my bag and it's payback. Square?" With a smirk the girl was immediately pushed roughly aside as Sango dashed right out the front door.

"Hey!" Sana called.

Taki made a move to go after Sango, the streets were dangerous at a place like this, daytime or not. It was a wonder they had safe business here. Maybe it's 'cause of their reputation for beating up some of the head gang leaders a few years back.

Hirunashi stopped him with an outstretched arm.

Taki looked at her with wide eyes.

She explained, keeping her eyes on the still swinging door. "Relax, I just saw Itachio walk by."

"Lame-ass probably saw her." Flarenii said, getting up off the floor and dusting herself off. "You guys about our own stupid bumblebee here. Someone get him an icepack. I'm going out." She hastily ran out the front door, slamming it behind her.

"I'll go get the icepack." Sana informed to no one in particular, turning towards the employees' room.

Hirunashi gave the outside one last look before helping the still-in-pain-and-twitching Hiroshi up.

It was starting to rain.

Outside, Sango ran, her notebook held her arms with dear life and her purse swing and jingling behind her. It didn't matter what street she took, as long as she was away from that place. She cut into different alleyways until she didn't know which direction she was going anymore.

_Run, that's right. Just run. That's all you're ever good for now._

Slumping against a brick wall covered with gangster-sprayed symbols. Sango slid down leaned against the wall sitting on the heels of her feet. Wrapping her arms around her she buried her face in deep.

The rain pelted at her hair and was getting her wetter by the second. She didn't care, like a stray mutt all she wanted was to be found and taken to a safe and secure home, but at the same time she wanted to stay away from the fear of rejection.

Sango sniffed and looked up just in time to see a group of men advancing towards her. Swaggering and hitching their low-belted pants and pulling up their shirts to show wannabe muscles and unnecessarily showing the tops of striped boxers.

"Hey, chica, whatcha doin' out in a place like this, eh?" Snickers were passed all around.

Itachio ran in the ever worsening rain. Shit. He had to find her fast.

The pounding of feet against pavement brought his attention to behind him. Flarenii gasped, wheezing for air and holding up a large black umbrella. "Weather guy said nothing about fricking rain at seven in the morning."

Itachio turned and was about to head across the street when a yellow cat with bright red eyes skidded out of an alleyway, dragging a familiar looking purse behind it. Itachio squatted down at eye level was reached out a hand towards the cat but something else in the alleyway caught his attention.

"The damsel in distress," Flarenii commented, not making a move at all.

Itachio didn't say anything. In one fluid movement, the silver-haired man grabbed the hissing cat and threw it into the purse, latching it onto one of Flarenii's arms. Then, grabbing the confused girl and dropping her on his shoulders like a father would carry his daughter, he looped his hands around the girl's knees. Itachio took off so fast Flarenii would've flown right off with the umbrella had she not grabbed onto Itachio's mass of silver hair.

Here comes Prince Charming.

**End Chapter

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Once again, sorry for the long delay. I hope I did well in this one. Any mistakes, just tell me about it. Kinda lazy to edit it now…Hiroshi is such an ass. I just have to say that. Some of my OCs are just plain...asses. Including Flarenii.


	15. Chapter 15:Pouring Rain Part II

**Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, don't you think that my life would be a hell of a lot easier to live?**

Yaay! Reviews! Thank you, Ile and 'KiTWorks'. You guys really do motivate me to keep on writing. I know I sound like I'm repeating myself, but really thanks. I'm really not that good of a writer; you know you think that too. I get good ideas but I'm not good when it actually gets to sharing the ideas. But my person quota, "Hey, (shrug) what the hell?" helps keep me writing as well. So, I hope ya'll like chapter fifteen. Damn, I just noticed- I wrote a lot.

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**Chapter 15: Pouring Rain Part II**

He had to find her fast and he had to find her now. Even if it was still just seven in the morning, Blue City's known for its bad portion of town. In the past four months alone there had been two murder cases which all involved the gang activities in this region. Itachio swung his head, looking down both alleyways with his silver hair flying wildly in his face obscuring his view.

Flarenii tapped the top of Itachio's head to get his attention. The girl pointed towards the way that leads to a brick wall- a dead end. "They dragged her over there!"

The pitter patter of heavy rain hitting pavement climbing a crescendo with each passing second as Itachio's sleek, expensive shoes pounded the uneven ground. Nearly tripping over a crack in the ground, he quickly regained his footing. Unfortunately the foot that balanced his tipping form out splashed into a fairly large puddle wetting Flarenii who was sitting atop his shoulders, Kirara who had poked her wet, furry head out of Sango's dropped purse and himself.

Itachio gave his head a rough shake to get rid of the rain droplets that had collected in his bangs. _I'm going to have to trim those at some point._

A man's gruff shout of pain broke through the rainfall.

"Stop standing there, and move it, Lame-ass!" Flarenii shouted.

Itachio didn't need to be told that by the one person that was dragging him down. Why did he have to carry her in the first place?

"Woah, woah, chica, calm down," The man that had first approached her sneered. His voice was a drawl and his Hispanic origin gave his words a roll of the tongue. Typical gangster voice.

An African American looked down at Sango was something along the lines of leer and started towards her crouched form on the ground against the brick wall. He was itching in his pants and wanting some fun. It's been days since this guy's gotten a proper laying and he wants one now.

Another hoodlum, with his hat pulled over his head making his hairy unibrow stand all the more out, stopped him. "What chu tink chu doing?"

The man growled at behind told what to do and put his face close to unibrows. "I tink I'm gonna be havin' some fun, punk. Don' yous be tellin' me what ta do."

The Hispanic annoyed at the bickering grabbed the Black gangster by the front of his large shirt and said in a low threatening voice. "Shut up, ya little puto. Now, you and yo white lil' chonis (underwear. I think…) go stan' watch or I'll bust yo white ass, comprendes amigo?"

(A/N: Do forgive me for my bad Spanish spelling. This guy speaks in broken Spanish. As a side note, I have nothing against any of the races noted above. It's just that most of the gangs in my city are of that origin.)

The man's anger only went up a notch and he brushed the Mexican man's gripping hand away roughly. "Yea, I git you all right." He spat near the opposing man's shoes before stalking off towards a garbage dump a good couple of feet away throwing unibrows a dirty look along the way.

The rest of the men that had stayed silent during the three other men's argument turned their attention back towards Sango who stood up and backed as far as she could into the wall without melting into it.

Her face was set in a determined glare as she assessed her situation. There were seven of them including the guy keeping guard and her current situation the only thing she had were her fists and teeth.

The closest one to her reached out a hand only to have it slapped away roughly.

Sango's eyes flashed warningly. "Don't touch me." It was a struggle to even suppress her shivers and keep a steady, calm voice.

The hoodlum that had his hand slapped away feigned a hurt expression and putted on a false sympathetic voice. His voice a disgusting crone, "Awww, is the little lost princess mad?"

The other men sniggered and laughed amongst themselves.

"Don' worry, princess, you'll be save wit' us," the man reached out a second time and Sango knew she timed it right when she threw a furious right hook at him. She knew she hurt him a whole lot when her knuckles cracked something in his mouth and when he flew, hit, and skidded a good five feet on the wet pavement.

The rain continued its onslaught. Overhead, lightning was beginning its flashing and thundered sounded. A little early in the morning for a thunderstorm.

The man groaned as he got up. No longer did he have the look of a predator playing with his prey in his eyes, the prey had pissed him off enough and the prey was going down. Down and hard.

The men smirked. "Tough one, aren't ya, princess?"

They advanced on her as a group. Sango's mind swam in panic. Sure she was the star pitcher on the baseball team, yes baseball team- she was totally man enough for that, in high school, but taking on a group of lusting gangsters weren't part of her 'easy to-do' list.

She tried to fend them off as best as she can but her wild punching and kicking could only do so much before she was pushed into the center of their sex-craved middle. Not exactly the best place to be for a girl like her.

Sango was getting desperate now, not even aiming for anything. Her hands swam wildly around her trying to stop the waves of hand grabbing her. She let out a cry, hoping that someone, anyone, would hear her. She shouted, "NO!", "Stop it!", put her calls went to waste.

There would be nobody coming for her. This was it for her.

"Yous gonna pay for sucker punchin' me like that, perra." He muttered his dirty breath too close and too warm next to her ear as his equally filthy hand grabbed a handful of her silky dark brown hair.

Her light brown eyes swam in a haze. She dropped down on her knees. She didn't know what was going on anymore. The only thing she could hear was her feeble attempts to tell them to stop and the loud pounding of rain. Their hands were all over her. Where was her jacket…?

A loud painful shout broke through the rainfall as the gruesome sound of something hard falling against someone's head got the attention of the gangsters. The Black sentry's unconscious form dropped to the wet cold ground with a thud as Flarenii lifted her right foot up. She wrinkled her nose, "Damn, just cleaned the shit of my shoes too."

"Doesn't matter- your shoes are always dirty," Itachio said, keeping a perfectly calm, robotic voice despite the situation before him.

Sango was kneeling on the ground, her arms hanging listlessly by her sides, her knuckles touching the cold ground. Her jacket was tossed off towards the side and the top of her shirt was hanging open, showing the tip of the bra she was wearing underneath. Her eyes were dull and her hair a mess from all the grabbing hands.

The head gangster followed Itachio's eyes towards Sango and smirked. "Pretty quiet for a chick about to be laid, eh? Think she'll be screaming or something."

That clicked the last anger level in Itachio's head as he took the hoodlums by surprise and suddenly rushed forward, dropping Flarenii on the ground as she slipped from his shoulders and hit the concrete hard.

Her loud irritable, "OW, DAMMIT!" went unheard as Itachio charged into the middle of the group. Assaulted with punches and kicks, the silver head wrapped his pale thin arms around Sango and pulled her up, hugging her loose form close to him.

Somebody pulled out a switch knife and Itachio hissed in pain as the cool sharp blade ripped the skin on his left forearm.

Flarenii was already running the other way by the time Itachio scooped Sango into his arms bridal style and ran as fast as he could before they pull out the guns.

_Damn, not good_.

Knowing it would only slow him down if he snuck a look, Itachio put forth an extra burst of speed and caught up to the huffing, puffing and already tired Flarenii easily.

"What… do we… do… now?" The girl asked in between pants.

God answered for Itachio as a dirty and familiar van hastily skidded to a stop ahead of them on the street. Itachio leaped over a fallen trash can as Flarenii tripped over it.

Taki threw the door open from the inside and Itachio climbed in still holding Sango close towards him. The rain pelted against the side of the van, but luckily the wind blew the rain drops at an angle away from the open door.

The Chinese girl picked herself up as fast as her bruising back would allow her to and spun around to point her Smith & Wesson at the gangster that had caught up who also happened to be the only one without a weapon of any sort. Stu-upid.

The girl couldn't resist sticking out her tongue when the hoodlum mistaken it as a real loaded gun and slid to a stop, losing his balance and falling on his ass on the puddle-filled concrete.

The van was already moving before Flarenii slammed the door shut.

From the rear view mirror, Hirunashi saw the hoodlums standing on the side of the street panting hard and looking at the back of the van in disbelief.

"Is she all right?" Taki asked, moving back to the passenger seat.

Itachio nodded silently, wrapping his black leather jacket around Sango.

Closing her eyes, her head bowed down and her chin dipped as she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Hey, she's getting a fever, "Flarenii said loudly, taking her wet dripping hand from Sango's forehead.

Hirunashi's dark eyes scanned the threesome from the driver's mirror. "Do you need a lift to the hospital?"

Itachio wrapped a pale and bleeding arm around Sango's shoulders, resting her head against his shoulder. "No. Just drop us off at my apartment."

Taki looked back, absolutely no emotion for display on his face. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, man, you're arms bleeding like crazy," Flarenii said, pointing a grimy finger at Itachio.

He turned and ran his silver eyes across the long but shallow cut that ran from the end of his wrist to nearly his elbow. The cut had mostly scabbed but there were still areas where the red life liquid was spilling out slowly. The red stain of his blood was already beginning to stain the car seat was well as trickling down his white t-shirt.

Itachio looked at the cut as if he had just noticed it. "…"

Taki handed him a _clean_ (probably the only thing _clean_ in the entire van) roll of bandages. "You should wrap it up before it gets infected."

Flarenii took the roll from his hand and pulled his arm away from Sango. The girl rolled the bandages on carefully but tightly.

Itachio flinched slightly.

Flarenii rolled her eyes when she noticed the eye movement. "Oh be a man, you pussy."

Hirunashi's smile could be seen from the rear view mirror. "You'd think it'd hurt too, ya know."

Flarenii huffed and disagreed. "Well I wouldn't be hurting that much."

Taki smirked. "Sure you will."

"Shut up, pussy cat."

The next fifteen minutes were spent in silence as Hirunashi navigated through the rain flooded streets of Blue City to Feudal Village Apartments.

Each of the four conscious occupants kept to themselves throughout the ride. Flarenii would occasionally ruffling through her junk filled bag and writing things in her notebook and mutter out random things. "Damn…lost …stupid…where is it?"

Itachio turned to the young girl sitting on his right. "What are you looking for."

"None of your bee's wax," came the curt reply.

Itachio shrugged. "Okay then."

Flarenii slapped her hands against her bag in frustration. "Damn it!" Looking past Itachio, she glared at the sleeping Sango and her lip curled back revealing bright shiny braces that seem to light up the dark van. "I just know she took it…"

"Typical of you to assume things," Taki said, a waning smirk playing on his lips as he kept his eyes locked on the road ahead of him as if imagining he were the one driving instead of Hirunashi. Yeah, keep on imagining, man.

"Shut up. You don't even know what I'm talking about."

"Then don't bother speaking aloud if nobody understands nor cares." Taki turned in his seat to give the young twelve-year-old an icy glare despite his fiery colored eyes.

Flarenii felt herself go small and shrink away at the look of his cold and angry eyes. "What?"

Hirunashi was silent as she looked at Flarenii's reflection in the rear view mirror. She frowned when Flarenii seemed to be intimidated by Taki's attitude. But, Flarenii wasn't all that innocent either. Hirunashi herself shouldn't be saying anything either because she and Hiroshi helped made the situation worse. Not one them had done anything to stop Hiroshi's little embarrassment charade, but Flarenii had admitted it was her idea even if she didn't openly say it. It's the context that counts, damn it!

"_An eye for an eye. You found all the skeletons in my bag and it's payback. Square?"_

Taki continued to stare Flarenii down to the point where the girl was shrinking back into her seat. "Do you intend to trample on everything and force your way on everyone your entire life?"

Flarenii was taken aback at the sudden question. I mean, what was all this about? "What are you talking about! Nobody complained or said anything when I told Hiroshi to snag **her** purse." She pouted and crossed her arms over in front of her.

She could feel Itachio's silver eyes staring in disbelief at her. She had agitated Sango to the point where she had to escape from the teasing and harassment. He had every right to be angry, but in the stubborn child's mind she kept repeating that it was Sango's own fault for deciding to bolt at the very worst place possible.

"Okay, this is it," Hirunashi said, stopping the car. "You guys need an umbrella or something? You'll be wet even before you reach the front door."

Itachio shook his head. "We'll be fine."

Taking anything from the car was a bad choice. Offer or not, he was not taking their shit- in a good way.

They were silent as they walked slowly in the rain and towards the apartment complex. Itachio carried Sango on his back and Flarenii held onto the other girl's purse under the watchful eye of Itachio. He didn't seem to trust her to not rifle through Sango's things again.

"Hey, we ain't going to your place?" Flarenii had walked herself up to Itachio's front door but Itachio was standing in front of Sango's door.

"No, it'll be weird if she woke up in my room," Itachio replied without turning around. "Get the keys."

Flarenii silently complied and reached into the purse and seconds and a click later they were in Sango's quiet, clean and cold apartment.

"Turn the heater on and get us something to eat," Itachio said heading over to Sango's room and closing the door slightly with his foot.

Flarenii jolted when the cat in the purse suddenly hissed and bounded into Sango's room after Itachio. No doubt it wanted to be with its master.

Such devotion was something to be admired.

Flarenii dumped Sango's purse on the sofa and immediately raided the fridge.

Meanwhile in Sango's room, Itachio carefully laid the unconscious Sango onto her bed. Just about to pull the covers on her, he realized the he should probably get her out of her wet clothes. Rain water and sweat both dripped down his nose as his hands twitched the closer they got towards Sango's sleeping form.

Reaching out with both hands, Itachio couldn't help but feel it was so fucking wrong doing this! He closed his fist and opened them again, leaning in on towards Sango.

Oh my God…

With a sudden hiss, Kirara leapt onto the bed, scratching Itachio's good arm in the process. Itachio quickly withdrew his hands, gods, if he had kept his hands hovering above Sango liked that it would look like he was going to take a groping advantage on her. He shivered; he needed to stop thinking dirty.

Kirara hissed and opened her mouth, swiping the air out in front of her. Itachio gulped; that was her warning for him to get the hell away from her master or she'll tear him to ribbons. And then tear those ribbons to even smaller ribbons.

Itachio hastily backed out of the room and into the kitchen only to bump into Flarenii who was still digging in the fridge.

"What the fuck, man?" Flarenii said over a tub of French vanilla flavored ice cream. "Watch where you're going."

Itachio stared at her in a dead panned expression. "You still haven't turned on the heater yet. And you're eating."

The girl shrugged. "Couldn't find the switch. And I'm hungry! I can't help it, I'm still a growing girl fresh into puberty, ya know."

"No, Flarenii, I didn't need to know that." Itachio walked himself around Sango's apartment. Checking the walls before going back to Sango's room…and found that the heater switch was right next to her room door on the inside.

He smacked his head with his palm in punishment for his own stupidity.

Flarenii looked up when Itachio slammed the door after him loudly and sunk down to his feet on the floor.

"Whatsa matter with you?" She asked, this time over a bag of chips.

Itachio shook his head and kneaded the bridge of his nose. He could feel a migraine coming on. "Her cat won't let me near her."

Flarenii was curious and drew out a chair. "Why the hell not?"

Itachio's pale skin turned a shade of purple, his version of a blush. "I dunno…maybe it thinks I'll…you know…Sango…"

Flarenii gave a sadistic grin. "She almost did get screwed. You'd think her cat would behave like that."

"Don't joke around about it," Itachio got back up on his feet and headed over to the kitchen counter and began messing around with the stove. Pulling open cabinets and slamming them closed again, Itachio scratched his head. Where the hell did she keep all her cooking pans and stuff?

"Um…what the hell are you doing?" Flarenii asked, finishing the crumbs of the bag of greasy potato chips in her hands.

Having finally found a pot, Itachio filled it with water. Turning a knob, he began to put the water to a boil. "Making something to eat." He mumbled quietly, digging for fresh vegetable for the stew he was cooking. "Do me a favor."

"What?" The girl asked, unceremoniously wiping her hands on a kitchen towel hanging on Sango's dishwasher.

Itachio stopped cutting his carrot slices in mid chop. His ears turned a little red before turning almost completely purple. "Could you…you know…" He began cutting again slowly…very…very…slowly…

Flarenii already knew what her friend meant, but she grinned like a shark behind his back. She just had to drag this on. "What?" She asked in a sing song voice.

"GET HER INTO SOME FRESH CLOTHES." Itachio said loudly as if to get it over with quickly.

Flarenii laughed, snorted, and giggled like a horse. "You could've just said so in the first place, Lame-ass." Still laughing she made her way into Sango's room, her laughter completely died in her throat the moment she closed the door behind her.

"Um…nice kitty?"

Itachio raised an eyebrow when he looked at the door to Sango's room.

What the heck was Flarenii screaming about?

He shrugged; if she wanted to be annoying let her be. The door muffled some the words she was yelling out but it sounded something like this: "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Ten minutes later Flarenii stalked out, stomping heavily, and carrying about eighteen scratches on her face and hands. "That went well."

Itachio looked at her ruffled appearance over the stew pot as he stirred. "?"

Flarenii went over to the sink and began washing the scratches with a sponge and some dish detergent. The girl scrubbed furiously at the scratches on her fingers, palms and on her chin, getting soap suds just about everywhere. "I got her shirt offa her and was drying her with a towel when her stupid rabid pussy cat started clawing my face out." The girl dried herself with the same towel she had used before with just as much ferocity. "Ferget it, man. I'm sure as hell not going back in there. Fuck. I need some bandages- the big kind and I need 'em pronto." Flarenii declared, throwing the towel down.

"Wait, what about Sango?" Itachio asked, dreading what's about to come.

"Do it yourself."

He dropped his knife.

Okay, he can do this. If his bastard of an older brother Hiroshima is a total womanizer, then surely he who shares his blood should be able to change the clothes on a sleeping girl that he hadn't really gotten to know all that well without any problems. Right? Right? Right.

The lightning cackled loudly outside as Itachio turned the knob to Sango's room slowly, carefully, and quietly. He walked in carefully so nothing squeaked or creaked. Kirara was curled up tight right next to Sango and appeared to be asleep.

Itachio breathed a sigh of relief. Good.

Kirara's ear twitched a bit.

Oh shit.

She didn't stir and only tucked her head in tighter between her paws.

Itachio didn't even chance a sigh this time and moved further into her room. Sango was lying on her bed in the same position he left her in except that the covers have been thrown off carelessly, her shirt was lying off on the side, her pants were unbuckled and slightly open…and she most definitely had nothing but a bra on underneath the huge towel covering her upper body.

Itachio gulped. Well at least Flarenii had the decency to cover Sango up with something. Maybe that little girl was lesbian.

NO!

Don't think about that kind of stuff right now. Focus on the task at hand: change an unconscious, almost half naked girl into something else. Right, easy.

Deciding to have a look in her dresser, Itachio tip toed over to the closest on to her bed and immediately stopped short when his eyes fell on a couple of pictures that sat collecting dust atop the dresser.

A pale hand reached out and grasped the cold frame and held out in front of him to be examined with curious silver eyes.

He looked up from the frame he was holding to glance at the several other pictures. They were mostly of Sango with her friends and a couple of people that he didn't know. His eyes immediately stopped short when they reached the face of a certain young man with black hair pulled back into a tiny pony tail and dark charm-filled eyes.

Something inside Itachio's head snapped. That guy had the same eyes as his damned brother. The guy was posing next to a palm tree at a sunny beach with his arms wrapped around in an intimate position on an extremely red, embarrassed, and agitated…

Sango.

He steeled his eyes. So, this was his arch nemesis: Miroku. Itachio's eyes widened as he realized what he had just thought. Arch nemesis? What the hell was he thinking? He smiled and shook his head. He wasn't starting to fall in love with Sango. No, he was just doing the things a good neighbor should do.

_Who are you trying to kid?_

A small groan from the bed bought his attention from the picture over to Sango. He quickly placed the framed picture he was holding back onto the counter with it face down.

He made no move over towards the bed, but stood his ground when Sango's tired eyes turned to look at them. She laid with her head turned to his side for a few seconds- her brain had not registered anything for the time being before she suddenly sat back up with her eyes wide open, mouth slightly agape, and searched the room with her eyes frantically as she clutched the towel close to her.

Sango was even more shocked when she realized that the towel she was clutching towards her was the only thing covering her bra.

Itachio brought his hands up quickly in front of him and tried to explain as fast as he could. "It isn't what you think. Really, it isn't. I saw you running out of Sana's store looking upset and decided to follow you. You were surrounded by…"

Sango's eyes flashed the fist gripping the towel tightened to a frightening white.

Itachio continued after a beat. "Anyway, Hirunashi and Taki dropped us off at your place. Flarenii had your keys. I didn't want you to wake up at my place. It would've been…weird."

A loud crash outside was accompanied by a loud, "Fuck! God damn it! Where the fuck is a freakin' band aid when you actually need it?"

"Uh…and Flarenii's here too."

"…"

Itachio stood counting the ticks to the clock Sango hanged above her dresser with his back towards the bed. Sango had not said a word to him as he managed to convince her he wasn't about to attack her and that she should change into some dry clothes.

The soft brushing of cotton and silk material reached his ears from the bed. The thought of Sango undressing right behind him in the same room was turning his face a deep purple. Fuck it. He should have offered to go outside or into the adjoining bathroom or something when she was changing. She didn't say anything when he turned around and that was ten minutes ago.

Itachio rubbed his temples with his palms. Why the fuck was he getting all worked up for? After all, this wasn't his first experience with a girl…More like his third. He certainly didn't have a problem with the other two girls undressing in the same room as him before. (He probably wouldn't have a problem if they were changing right in front of him either.)

Itachio gave another four minutes before taking a peek. She was done changing and he bundled up the wet clothes.

Sango had her back towards him; probably fell asleep again. He couldn't blame her, after what she's been through and now a fever, any girl would have been beat by now. He absentmindedly pulled her covers up over her shoulders like a father checking on his daughter would before turning to leave.

A sudden small nasal voice stopped him. "Itachio? Could you stay here for a while?"

He answered quietly before closing the door behind him. "Yeah, sure."

After closing the door, Itachio leaned against the door and covered his eyes with his hand. He sighed, there was so little he could do for her now.

Flarenii eyed him over her box of outdated cereal. "Did you get her changed?"

Itachio gave no answer.

"What's she doing now?"

Itachio slumped down to the ground.

_She's crying again._

**End Chapter 15

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**

Well, it looks like chapter fifteen came out a lot sooner than expected. Actually kinda good for something I wrote in about four days- if I do say so myself. I oughta give myself a pat on the back or something…If there are any mistakes anywhere in this chapter, please leave a note about it in your review so I'll go back and change it. Yes, I'm trying not to be lazy. Anyways, please review. (Flames welcome.)


	16. Chapter 16:Damn Broken Heater

**Disclaimer: Me no own Inuyasha. (I think I've used that one before…)**

Thanks for the reviews, once again. Strange, that was the best chapter I've written? Well I did feel a little like that was the less shittiest of the crap that I've written so far. So, yeah. Summer vacation is finally here! Start expecting sooner updates from me, peoples. Other than the fact that I have classes at the local community college every Monday through Thursday from six to almost ten at night and the weekly piano lessons on Tuesday from eleven to twelve, I pretty much have endless free time.

So…yeah…Damn I hate these awkward moments! Fucking awkward moment!

* * *

**Chapter 16: Damn Broken Heater**

All she could see was black. Lots and lots of black. Sango tried to open her eyes but to no avail. She shivered despite the fact that her body temperature was abnormal at the moment and the fact that she was covered from head to toe in a dizzying warm feeling. She felt light-headed, woozy, and…floating on clouds? Wait. When the hell did this 'Weeeee! Look, mommy, I'm flying!' feeling sneak up on her? Hold the fucking phone! Floating in clouds- now where the hell did that come from?

When Sango finally managed to snap open her heavy eyelids, all she saw around her were clouds and the sky. And at the exact moment she knew that this just has to be a dream. There were no other fucking explanations. All the while repeating _'This is just a dream.'_ over and over in her head, Sango began to take in her environment. Other than the fact that she was floating in the clouds, beneath her feet all she could see was the pavement and DAMN THAT WAS A LONG DROP BACK TO EARTH! She was currently experiencing a feeling that was something along the lines of the Drop Zone, only this was worse. This had to be two Drop Zones stacked on top of each other.

Oh shi…

Sango opened her mouth to scream and scream she did. She must have been free falling, from what; a thousand feet in the air, without a parachute anywhere near her. The ground was coming up fast and there was nothing she could do but squeeze her eyes shut.

_Just think about Miroku. Just think about Miroku…_

Wait, if this was a dream then why the fuck would she be thinking about that? No time to argue with herself, in about .03 seconds she's going to be a blob of imploded human flesh and organs on the street.

Slowly, Sango opened an eye. Then the other. Nothing. Touching her face with one hand Sango felt solid flesh under her hand. Taking another reality check test, she slapped herself on across the face. SLAP! She immediately regretted doing that and continued to feel like an idiot. Rubbing her sore, stinging face, Sango looked around her. She was on a sidewalk with rows and rows of houses that all seem to be like clones of each other.

"What's going on here?" She asked herself. Her voice sounded like it was bouncing off walls, like she was in an echo-y room. But she wasn't, she was in a freak neighborhood in an even freakier dream of hers. What the fuck did she even eat in the morning to be dreaming this?

Oh, yeah she didn't have breakfast this morning because some little bitch coughFlareniicough woke her up at the bloody crack of dawn to drag her to the other bloody side of town to buy some bloody costume for some bloody American holiday and that was when that bloody little bitch sent her bloody running into the bloody arms of those bloody-…

Okay, shut up, breath, think. That better? No more blood, okay? Taking a few more deep breaths, Sango didn't notice a change in the scenery until a boy with wild silver hair stepped out from the house that she was facing. He closed the door softly behind him and made his way down the front steps and into the yard where she was standing. She watched him in silent fascination, his head was down and his steps were wobbly and uncertain. Who was he? There was no one else around them for what looked like miles.

He stopped when he was right in front of her. He couldn't see her could he? Sango suddenly felt conscious of the feeling of embarrassment she would feel if he _could_ see her. I mean, if he lifted his head up he would be getting an extreme close up of her chest. The only man that had done that had done it about eleven times and all those eleven times she had beaten the shit out of his face.

"_Buddhist tradition, my ass! Miroku, you are such a pervert!"_

"_But, dear Sango, how could any normal man resist such luscious temptations? It was only natural-"_

"_NATURAL! Why I ought to…"_

Good times, good times indeed. Sango smiled and tears began to unconsciously collect at the corners of her eyes. A single drop escaped from her and landed on the top of the boy's head. To her surprise, it fell right through.

Sango blinked a few times, successfully clearing away the rest of her tears. What the fuck? So, which way was it: her transparent or him transparent? Maybe both of them were…

It was only when he looked up did she take a couple steps back in unnatural shock. No, it wasn't from the close proximity of his face; it was the familiarity of it: those same stone cold silver eyes, the dead pale look, the thin slightly sunken face, the wild hair with the bangs that covered his eyes; Sango nearly tripped in her haste retreat. The way he stood, slightly hunched over, the way his eyes could look into you and you'd feel like he wasn't really looking at you.

Itachio.

He looked like a younger, miniature version of the Itachio that she knew. He took no noticed of her reaction and stood still at that same spot. A thin pale arm reached up and smoothed the hair where the tear passed through out. The hair popped back into its strange position before the boy looked up and muttered what sounded like, "It's not raining. Weird."

Hell, even that same robotic, devoid-of-any-personality voice was the same. What exactly was she dreaming? Could it be possible she was dreaming Itachio's memories of his childhood? Okay that was crazy talk you would only hear from a shrink. Or from Kaede when she's had too much of her herbal remedy teas. Sango liked to think of it as the former. Never again did she want to see Kaede high on herbal remedy teas, EVER.

Sango took a slow, careful step towards mini Itachio and waved a hand in front of his face. He didn't appear to react or anything. Sango leaned in even further and gasped softly- she couldn't see her reflection in his silver eyes. Then she sighed in relief, good. Like I said earlier, it would have been totally awkward if he saw some twenty-four year old woman just lean in on him like that. Speaking of age, he looked like he was around Kohaku's age. Maybe even a little older, but it was hard to tell since he was so…small…well, not exactly small. He was a tall kid, but she was pretty tall herself. So, given the fact that the top of his head almost reached her boobs, she'd say he was around thirteen or fifteen. His voice sounded like it still had that girlish pre-pube tinge to it.

Sango walked in a circle around mini Itachio. Not that she was checking him out or anything like that. God, you fucking sickos... So anyway, mini Itachio stayed that way for a while almost to the point where Sango almost thought that he must have fallen asleep standing up or something. It sure seemed that way. I mean, he wasn't moving at all; not much blinking either. What was he? Some kind of alien mini Itachio?

She finally saw a reaction. From somewhere, a muffled high-pitched voice called, "Tachi-Tachi!"

Tachi?

What the fuck?

Tachi.

Was that supposed to his nickname or something?

Tachi…

Mini Itachio abruptly shook out of his reverie and immediately scanned the neighborhood for the owner of the voice. Sango didn't know how he found her seeing as how suddenly the entire place was covered in a thick white fog. He smiled and brought a hand up in a pathetic wave. But he was smiling. It wasn't the half-assed smile that he gave her or anybody else; it was a GENUINE smile.

A girl came into view. She was running with a jump rope loop flying after her, she had something in her hand that she was waving at mini Itachio. The girl smiled even though she was breathless from running so hard. The closer she got, the more apparent her shiny silver hair grew. Silver hair? Could she maybe be related to mini Itachio?

"Issa," Mini Itachio said when the girl finally stood in front of him. She grinned up at him like him acknowledging her was the best thing that happened to her. Sango felt her stomach do a weird somersault. The girl was standing a little too close to him. Their toes were maybe a thumb's width apart.

Hang on a sec- Issa? Now where has she heard that before? Despite squeezing her brain out from everything she's remembered in the past few days, Sango still couldn't quite place where she's heard that name before. Sango bit her lip in frustration. Damn it, she usually was good at remembering things. The two silver heads were talking again.

Mini Itacho tilted his head to the side. Puppy dog cute. Gah, stop thinking about that! "So, where have you been?"

Sango must have been imagining it, but when mini Itachio tilted his head to the side, the girl, Issa seemed to have appeared a little redder. "I-I was at the park. Look what I found!" She held out the hand that she was waving at him with, it held a baby robin. It chirped and tried to hop around in her fist. "Isn't it cute?" She giggled, bringing the tiny chick up her face. "Tachi-Tachi, its feathers are so soft!"

Given her childish attitude and her miniature height, Sango would have to say that Issa might have been a little older than Shippo, but younger than Flarenii.

Mini Itachio's smile widened by a tooth. "Yes, it is kind of cute." Sango's eyes popped out of her socket. She had never expected Itachio to be the type of person to use the word 'C-U-T-E'. 'C-U-T-E' probably didn't even exist in _their_ dictionary. But here he was, flinging that word out of his mouth like he was any other ordinary person. Okay, that was mean right there- she didn't mean to call him a freak. Hell, she didn't even mean to call him a freak indirectly.

Slowly, he reached a hand out and stroked its soft chest feathers. The chick robin chirped softly and briefly reminded Sango of Kirara purring whenever she would scratch Kirara around the ears. Her cat seemed to enjoy people touching her ears. It was strange, but definitely cute. Mini Itachio smiled again.

Issa giggled, taking another step closer to mini Itachio. Not that they weren't even close enough to begin with. "Look, it likes you." Her eyes drew back into the small 'young and cute girl' smile that sends hormone-driven teenage boys and crazy, fantasizing pedophiles reeling. Was she imagining it or did mini Itachio just blush? Sango suddenly felt a little ashamed of watching the two kids in front of her. Somehow, it felt like she was watching a couple making out with each other. Those were the times when after a practice game she was the one stuck with bringing all the balls, mitts, and bats to the storage room. Right when she opens the door, she would find some guy and girl making out right where she was supposed to put her baseball stuff and for some reason she would always open the door right when the crinkling of a condom wrapper discarded was heard. Needless to say, Sango had always had a _'Don't do it!'_ sing-song voice in the back of her head whenever she opened her closet doors after that.

The open and slamming of a door immediately brought Sango's as well as Issa's and mini Itachio's attention back to the house. Another silver head boy walked out only this silver head definitely looked older than the other two. Despite her telling herself that Issa and mini Itachio were all part of her dream, this new arrival was definitely the one and the only: Hiroshima.

"Ah, if it isn't my dear little brother and my oh-so-loveable baby sister. Why oh why are two adorable children such as you doing outside in the cold?" That guy even had his Prince Charming sparkles radiating in circles around him. His teeth looked bleached. There was no other explanation; they just **_HAD_** to be bleached. Nobody, I mean, **_NOBODY_** could have teeth that fucking shiny!

Mini Itachio glared venom at Hiroshima as if he was ruining the moment while Issa only smiled up naively at Hiroshima before making her way up the front yard steps and towards the front door.

Sango watched as the young girl skipped past her, but when she turned back to mini Itachio, she felt a shudder go down her spine. And not in a good way mind you. His face was blank, but his fists at his sides were dripping blood. Literally, he was clasping his nails a little too deep into his palm skin. Why was he so upset? Sango followed his eyes' gaze back towards Hiroshima and Issa who were chatting most amiably and only then did mini Itachio's eyes flash when Issa suddenly leapt up and threw her arms around Hiroshima's neck happily.

Whatever they had been talking about didn't matter now. Itachio's face split in a frightening look that Sango had never seen before. A loud voice boomed and echoed in her head so loud that it pained her like her skull was about to burst. Her hands flew up to her temples as Sango gritted her teeth, trying to hold back the waves of angry emotions.

"_Why do you do this to me!"_

What…?

"_Every time you speak to me, every time you look at me, everything. This feeling…"_

What are you talking about?

"_Yet, HIM…It's always about him isn't it?"_

A dry, bitter laugh.

"_Anissa."_

One last thought before his phantom like smile repeatedly flashed before her mind.

Then, Sango jolted awake, and obviously her first thought was _'What in the fucking hell was that?'_

Seriously.

Sango blinked her sleepy eyes several times. She still had that feverish warmth surrounding her, but at least this time she wasn't floating in the clouds a thousand feet in the air. Sango turned her head to her right and immediately saw Kirara's big head in her face. Sango smiled, and reached with a tired hand to pet her cat on the head when something in the tiny cat's paws caught her eye. Sango never took her eyes off the item as she carefully pulled it out of Kirara's closed paws. It was the yin-yang necklace that Hiroshima had bought her at the mall. Maybe it was because of this that she was having such a weird dream.

Turning over so she faced her ceiling, Sango sighed tiredly. She certainly wouldn't be going to work now. With the necklace chain looped around her wrist, Sango absentmindedly began to stroke Kirara's furry little head until she heard the voices in the kitchen. Turning her head towards the door, Sango saw that a sliver of light fell into her room. Who turned the kitchen lights on?

"…and it's still all fucking dark like it's at night or something," That was unmistakably Flarenii's drawl of a voice. There was a rustling of some kind of food package. Was that brat raiding her food supply?

"The news dude totally didn't say anything about this…" Itachio's voice sounded far away.

There was a screeching of a chair being pushed back followed by the soft tap of somebody walking on the wood tiled kitchen floor.

Flarenii stretched her arms and pushed her finished bowl of stew away from her. "That was good, man. I didn't know you could cook like that. Hey, there any seconds left?" Was this girl a glutton or what? How does she manage to maintain that skinny frame?

Itachio looked sternly (or has stern as he could) at the younger girl. "Hey, you forgetting that Sango hasn't eaten yet."

"Psh. Sandy's out cold. Besides, she's probably not hungry anyway."

Itachio didn't say anything but proceeded to bring a bowl of stew to Sango's room. "Who knows. Maybe she's awake now. She's been out for a while."

Hearing that, Sango's eyes immediately went for her clock, and it told her that it was almost 10:30 in the morning.

"Whatever. I'm watching t.v. Peh, some Halloween morning this is." Sango flinched when Flarenii jumped onto her couch with a loud THUD! Damn it, that little bitch is going to destroy all her furniture by the end of this day!

Sango closed her eyes as soon as she heard the first squeak of her room door being parted further. The smell of hot vegetable stew reached her, and Sango's stomach growled loudly instantly. Right, she still hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

"Hungry or what, huh." Itachio's soft voice said from right next to her. He glanced down at her when she didn't respond. He frowned, "I know you're awake, Sango. You can open your eyes."

Reluctantly, Sango did and she turned her sleepy gaze to him. Kirara awoke as well, but the cat didn't seem to like it. With an annoyed hiss, Kirara bounded further away from Sango's side of the queen size bed. Itachio felt relieved that the cat didn't try to claw him to death or anything. After seeing what the cat did to Flarenii's chin and arms, he had almost been afraid to enter Sango's room again. When the Chinese girl flat out refused to take Sango's bowl of stew to her, Itachio felt like his flawless looks were on the line. Not to be bragging or anything, even through puberty he had gotten relatively few pimples. Hiroshima on the other hand…well, let's just say that at one point he looked like a basketball- rubbery with bumps all over. Fortunately, it had all gone away by the beginning of the next year. Damn, Itachio was actually starting to get his hopes up when he awoke one morning hearing Hiroshima shrieking at the bloody crack of dawn, "NO! MY BEAUTIFUL FACE IS RUINED!" Sometimes, the Prince Charming was just too…vain. Then again, aren't all princes vain?

Itachio set the warm bowl on her bed stand and the spoon right beside it. The bed covers didn't look like they had been messed with too much. She was dead asleep all right. He glanced down at her to find her rubbing circles around her eyes.

She sniffed once. Great, a high fever and a cold? "How long have I been out? I don't remember."

Itachio shrugged and sat down at the edge of her head, near her feet. He could sense her unease through the covers. He couldn't blame her for being paranoid, not after what she's been through. "About three and a half hours or so." After a second of silence, he scratched his head. "You should drink it while it's still hot. It tastes better that way." He mentally yelled at himself for not looking at her when he said that. Crap, was he going through his mid-life crises or what. Not even twenty-three and his silver hair were already losing its shine. Maybe it was a sign he was getting old. Peh, yeah right…

Sango pushed herself up into a setting position with her back resting against the queen bed's backboard. Even if her stomach was dying out at this moment, for some reason she didn't feel like shoving food down her throat. Maybe she'll do that later. "Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

Itachio still kept his gaze trained on her door. "You didn't eat breakfast." When Sango made a surprised sound, he closed his eyes and explained, "Flarenii told me she, Hirunashi and Hiroshi came and picked you up around six. Retarded I know, but she has this crazy thing in her head about 'getting the best costume of the year' or something. That kid's still young and she already lost it." Itachio tapped his temple lightly before making a corkscrew gesture.

"Heh," Sango's small smile lasted for not even a second before it disappeared.

Itachio finally managed to look at her from the corner of his eye. "Sooo…are you going to eat now or not. Flarenii's been pining after your portion."

Sango rested her chin on her knee and wrapped her arms around her legs. "I'm fine, thanks."

Itachio stood up without a sound before heading over and picking up the stew. As he headed towards the door, the silver head looked over his shoulder and asked, "Do you need anything else."

Sango draped her sheets around her shoulders and shivered. "It'll be nice if you could turn up the heater."

"Sure thing." Itachio reached over to the thermostat built into the wall next to Sango's room door and flipped the degrees up by a little before closing the door with a soft click. Almost instantly, the low hum of the heater went to a crescendo as more warm air was forced into the apartment room.

Itachio sat himself down on the couch next to Flarenii with a tired sigh. Rubbing his temples with his thumb, he reached over and turned off the television.

Flarenii immediately responded with a loud, annoyed, "Hey, man, what the fuck? I was watching that!"

Itachio turned and gave the girl a half glare. "It was getting annoying."

Flarenii glared right back before pouting and stuffing her mouth with another cookie. She reached over and snatched the remote back, turning the t.v. on.

"How long are you going to keep on eating." Itachio asked, leaning back into the couch and watching her as she stuffed yet another chocolate chip cookie into her mouth. How could somebody that small ingest that much food in just a few hours?

"I'll keep on eating till I'm finished." She replied, tossing the empty bag over her shoulder where it landed on a small pile of other junk food bags.

Lightning flashed against the window causing the shadows in the house to play tricks upon their eyes. Flarenii stopped the mini Oreo bites halfway to her mouth when the t.v. started to fuzz out and the lights started to flash. Both Lame-ass and Dog Monkey kept their gaze glued to the light on the ceiling above them.

Out.

On.

Out again.

…

Flarenii turned her attention back down to the t.v. set. "Well, I guess everything's fine again."

Oh how wrong she is. The second she said that, a huge bolt of lightning hit the apartment complex's front yard, kicking the soil all the way up to the third floor. Flarenii screamed loudly, surprisingly it sounded like a deranged monkey. Itachio flinched as the thunder that sounded overlapped Flarenii's screaming. Then, it was all over. Everything electrical within the next six blocks as well as the entire north side of Blue City unplugged simultaneously. The entire Feudal Village apartments plunged into darkness.

However, the heater was still rolling.

"What the fuck?" Well said, dear Flarenii. The girl stood up on the couch and reached a cookie crumb covered hand toward the air duct. She glanced down at Itachio with her eyebrows in 'The Rock' mode. "The heat's still coming."

Itachio hurried over towards the front door and pulled the door open. All down the halls, neighbors were spilling out of their rooms and conversations erupted everywhere about the freak black out that the storm had just caused. Another rumble of thunder reminded them that the storm has still yet to pass. When Itachio came back to the couch, he sat down perplexed. "Seems like we have the only working heater."

Flarenii dropped back down onto the couch before pulling out her cell phone. "Tch. My cell's dead."

"So's mine. That wasn't your average electrical surge. Great way to end the year, huh?"

Flarenii frowned. "Shut up. If this weather fucking keeps up, my birthday'll be a complete blow, man." Yep, dear Flarenii's thirteenth birthday was coming up in a few days- November third to be exact.

Itachio made his way over to Sango's room and opened the door. The heater's hum was more pronounced in here, and so was the heat. The moment he stepped in, Itachio was hit with a wave of warm air. It felt like it was summer all over again in here. "Hey, Sango…-"

Itachio stopped short when he saw that Sango was sitting up with her sheets clutched tightly around her. Kirara was right next to her, sitting on her hind legs and both were staring at something in front of them. Itachio stepped hesitantly further into the room, but neither of the room's other occupants took any notice of him. He followed their gaze towards the top of the dresser where Sango's photos were. The one that she was staring at was the one that stood out the most- the photo of her and Miroku together.

_The one that I flipped face down…_Itachio thought.

"Sango." He called her name again. There was no response. Kirara blinked and that was pretty much it. He waved his hand slightly at her; however Sango was unfazed. Her lips moved continuously as if she was lisping something over and over again. Slowly, Itachio reached over to the photo and once again flipped it face down.

That caused Sango to blink a few times before she finally noticed that Itachio was in the room.

"What are you doing?" Harsh wasn't she. Was she completely out of it or what?

Itachio twiddled his fingers and scratched his head. "Um…the power went out. Major power failure."

"And…" Sango said, eyeing him with what was it? Annoyance?

"…and…" Itachio paused. Wait, was she mad 'cause he flipped Miroku's picture down? Or, was she mad because he just barged in without knocking? Whatever. "…your heater's still working."

"That's good isn't it." Sango looked him in the eye. Oh, so now she's being indifferent, huh?

Itachio sputtered. "D-don't you find that weird. Almost everywhere the electricity went out and you're the only one in this place that still has a working heater." He's losing his cool- NOT GOOD.

Before Sango could give him another smart-ass, indifferent answer, there was a loud popping sound like something just gave a small explosion. Both Sango and Itachio turned their eyes toward the door where the Chinese girl was standing, looking back at them sheepishly. "Um…I didn't do it?"

"Do what?" Itachio and Sango asked in complete synch. They didn't give it a second thought.

Flarenii pointed to the thermostat on the wall. "I just poked it a little and then something popped."

The other two looked back at her with something that was along the lines of, "Yeah, right. Cut the bull shit, bitch."

Flarenii pouted and leaned on a leg with her hand on her hip. "Okay, fine. It wasn't just a 'little poke'. I stabbed the stat switch a couple of times with my finger before the heat finally started to go down. What? The place was turning into a fucking oven!"

"…"

"…"

"Think of it like, I fixed it. The fucking thing was still going when it should've been off."

"…"

"…"

"It's just a damn broken heater. Sheesh, you guys are making it look like I bombed the building or some shit like that."

"…"

"…"

"So, um…anyone wanna play Parcheesi?"

**End Chapter 16

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**

Okay, so yeah, the title kind of blends with Flarenii's next to last line. I understand if the beginning dream sequence was weird. I just wanted to point out the fact that a younger Itachio was feeling jealous of a younger Hiroshima over a girl named Anissa. I hope the next chapter explains things a little bit (if I get working on it.) Damn, I feel like I just spoiled it. Whatever. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please review. No. Really. PLEASE. REVIEW. Thank you. (Flames welcome.)


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